Schedule
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FQXi Conference on Physics of Information
The days will be themed to explore the role of information in multiple interdisciplinary areas, including cosmology, consciousness, quantum gravity, and quantum technology.
January 5, 2014
7pm – 9pm Welcome Reception
January 6, 2014
8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 12pm Intro Panel: Perspectives on Information in its many forms
- Moderator: Paul Davies
- Panelists: Carlo Rovelli, Fred Adams, Giulio Tononi, Jos Uffink, Kevin Knuth, Marcelo Gleiser, Matthew Pusey, Olimpia Lombardi, Steve Giddings, Wayne Myrvold, Alex Vilenkin, Luis Garay
12pm – 1pm Lunch
1pm – 4pm Breakout Sessions
4pm – 4:20pm PM Break
4:20pm – 5pm Reports from Breakout Sessions
5pm – 7:30pm Using information physics to measure and manipulate
Panel: What’s quantum information really good for?
- Speakers: Anton Zeilinger (Skype), Gerardo Adesso, Andrew Briggs
- Moderator: William Wootters
- Panelists: Caslav Brukner, Raymond Laflamme, Andrew Briggs, Gerardo Adesso, Sorin Paraoanu
January 7, 2014
8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 12pm Measuring and manipulating information
Panel: What can and can’t be predicted in computational/quantum/relativistic systems?
- Speakers: Raymond Laflamme, Scott Aaronson, Caslav Brukner
- Moderator: Adrian Kent
- Panelists: Scott Aaronson, Don Page, Jeremy Butterfield, James Weatherall, Steven Weinstein, Fred Adams
12pm – 1pm Lunch
1pm – 1:30pm Lightning Talks
1:30pm – 4:30pm Information and Cosmology
Panel: What can we know and predict, and how, in a superlarge universe?
- Speakers: Sean Carroll, Alan Guth, Yasunori Nomura
- Moderator: Anthony Aguirre
- Panelists: Alan Guth, Raphael Bousso, Sean Carroll, Alex Vilenkin, Don Page, Andreas Albrecht
5:50pm – 8:40pm Pick-ups for Bioluminescent Bay tours (kayak and electric boat)
January 8, 2014
8AM – 9AM Breakfast
9am – 12pm Mind, Brain, and Information
Panel: What is consciousness?
- Speakers: Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Max Tegmark
- Moderator: Valerie Jamieson
- Panelists: Christof Koch, Giulio Tononi, Max Tegmark, Larissa Albantakis, Federico Faggin
12pm – 12:10pm Group Photo
12:15pm – 1:15pm Lunch and Reverse Debates
1:15pm – 4:30pm Group Hike
4:30pm – 5pm PM Break
5pm – 7:30pm Biological and Complex Systems
Panel: Is there free will? What can be predicted in biological, neural, and mental systems?
- Speakers: Paul Davies, Anita Goel, Susanna Still
- Moderator: George Musser
- Panelists: Anita Goel, Susanna Still, Seth Lloyd, Marcelo Gleiser, Chris Adami, Christof Koch
January 9, 2014
8am – 9am Breakfast
9am – 12pm Information in quantum gravitational systems
Panel: What happens in and near an evaporating black hole?
- Speakers: Seth Lloyd, Carlo Rovelli, Raphael Bousso
- Moderator: Anthony Aguirre
- Panelists: Raphael Bousso, Andrew Hamilton, Seth Lloyd, David Lowe
12pm – 1pm Lunch
1pm – 2pm Lightning Talks
2pm – 4:30pm Free Time
5pm – 7:00pm Science and Society
Panel: How can big-picture science thinking help society, and vice-versa?
- Moderator: Max Tegmark
- Panelists: Jaan Tallinn, Keith Woolcock, Melanie Swan, Andrew Briggs, Daniel Darg, Sarah Hreha, Curtis Widdoes, Elizabeth Koch, Robert Kuhn, George Musser, Valerie Jamieson
8pm Group Dinner
January 10, 2014
9am – 11am Closing Session
- Speakers: Ian Durham
- Panelists: tbd
Brunch will be served
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.