Physical (A)Causality : Determinism, Randomness and Uncaused Events / by Karl Svozil.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Svozil, Karl, Author.

Series:

Fundamental Theories of Physics, 0168-1222 ; 192

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physics.

Mathematical physics.

Knowledge, Theory of.

Probabilities.

Philosophy and science.

History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics.

Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics.

Epistemology.

Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes.

Philosophy of Science.

Local Subjects:

History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics.

Theoretical, Mathematical and Computational Physics.

Epistemology.

Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes.

Philosophy of Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XIV, 219 p. 32 illus., 24 illus. in color.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2018.

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2018.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book addresses the physical phenomenon of events that seem to occur spontaneously and without any known cause. These are to be contrasted with events that happen in a (pre-)determined, predictable, lawful, and causal way. All our knowledge is based on self-reflexive theorizing, as well as on operational means of empirical perception. Some of the questions that arise are the following: are these limitations reflected by our models? Under what circumstances does chance kick in? Is chance in physics merely epistemic? In other words, do we simply not know enough, or use too crude levels of description for our predictions? Or are certain events "truly", that is, irreducibly, random? The book tries to answer some of these questions by introducing intrinsic, embedded observers and provable unknowns; that is, observables and procedures which are certified (relative to the assumptions) to be unknowable or undoable. A (somewhat iconoclastic) review of quantum mechanics is presented which is inspired by quantum logic. Postulated quantum (un-)knowables are reviewed. More exotic unknowns originate in the assumption of classical continua, and in finite automata and generalized urn models, which mimic complementarity and yet maintain value definiteness. Traditional conceptions of free will, miracles and dualistic interfaces are based on gaps in an otherwise deterministic universe. .

Contents:

Part I Embedded observers, reflexive perception and representation: Intrinsic and extrinsic observation mode

Embedded observers and self-expression

Reflexive measurement

Intrinsic self-representation

Part II Provable unknowns: On what is entirely hopeless

Forecasting and unpredictability

Induction by rule inference

Other types of recursion theoretic unknowables

What if there are no laws? Emergence of laws

Part III Quantum unknowns: "Shut up and calculate"

Evolution by permutation

Quantum mechanics in a nutshell

Quantum oracles

Vacuum fluctuations

Radioactive decay

Part IV Exotic unknowns: Classical continua and infinities

Classical (in)determinism

Deterministic chaos

Partition logics, finite automata and generalized urn models

Part V Transcendence: Miracles

Dualistic interfaces

Part VI Executive summary: Executive summary

Appendix A: Formal (in)computability and randomness

B: Two particle correlations and expectations.

Notes:

CC BY-NC

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9783319708157

3319708155

OCLC:

1041487879