Showing category "Philosophy" (Show all posts)

Everything is Real

Posted by on Wednesday, March 9, 2016, In : Philosophy

A few years ago, a friend of mine shocked the audience at a science outreach lecture for the public by telling them the laws of physics say that every book, stage play, movie, and television program they have ever seen is real. No matter how bizarre the plots may seem, somewhere people with the exact same names and physical appearances actually did the exact same things in real life. Somewhere out there, a strongman name Hercules really did complete the labours described in mythology. Somewhe...
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The Doomsday Argument

Posted by on Tuesday, July 7, 2015, In : Philosophy

A few days ago I happened upon an online discussion of probability theory, and the issue of the doomsday argument came up. This is an odd bit of mathematics that seems to predict the end of the world is coming soon, and it has been bolstered in recent years by academic articles written by respected scientists and published in peer-reviewed journals. While I disagree with some of the arguments used in this calculation, it is still worth studying and understanding if for no other reason than to...
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Free Will vs. Determinism

Posted by on Monday, June 8, 2015, In : Philosophy

Over the weekend I happened upon a discussion online on whether the Universe and the laws of nature support free will or not. This is not a simple question, and the technical details are well beyond the scope of this blog. However I thought I would spur further debates with a simple model that suggests how the Universe could be deterministic and support free will at the same time. I must also add a disclaimer that this is a very simplistic overview of a much bigger debate, and I will be skipp...
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Quantum Immortality

Posted by on Friday, December 5, 2014, In : Philosophy

A friend of mine asked me a few days about something that he had heard in a quantum physics lecture, feeling that he had surely misunderstood the lecturer's comments. And being quantum mechanics, which is bizarre at the best of times, that is always a possibility. However the comment in question is in fact an interesting aspect of quantum physics which is still hotly debated by the experts.

According to quantum mechanics, you are immortal and will never die.

Now that the quantum physicists have...
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The Envelope Paradox

Posted by on Friday, October 17, 2014, In : Philosophy

Last Spring I wrote a series of articles on interesting paradoxes in mathematics and logic, and based on the response from several correspondents these were relatively well received. It would seem that many of my readers quite enjoy these thought provoking problems, and spent enjoyable hours contemplating their complexities.

And so I thought I would write another one today, just to give my reader more to ponder this week.

Today's topic is known by many names, but is usually referred to as "The ...
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Newcomb's Paradox

Posted by on Friday, April 25, 2014, In : Philosophy

After writing about Simpson's paradox a few weeks ago, and receiving such positive responses to it, I have been asked to write another article on a mathematical paradox. This time the topic of discussion is Newcomb's paradox.

Suppose that there is a game show in which you, the player, are shown two boxes labelled A and B. Box A will always contain $1000. Box B may contain a million dollars or it may contain absolutely nothing, which is decided before the game begins. The player is given a choi...

Hempel's Paradox

Posted by on Sunday, July 7, 2013, In : Philosophy

For those who are interested in serious science news, you may want to skip today's article. It is a fascinating paradox in science, but it is more than a bit philosophical as well. This is actually a well known paradox that has been discussed and debated for a long time, but it is still worth pondering.

The experimental method in science is very straightforward. A scientist develops a hypothesis, and then goes out into the world collecting data. That data might come from observing plants or an...
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Virtual or Reality

Posted by Chris Bird on Friday, March 9, 2012, In : Philosophy

I came across an interesting argument a few days regarding the nature of reality. However since this entry is pure philosophy, some of my serious science devotees may want to skip this one :)

Now that I have the disclaimer out of the way, here is the argument. Assume for a moment that we live in the real world (that may seem obvious, but you will see why this assumption is necessary in a moment). We have one Universe and one reality. But on a single uninteresting little planet in a single uni...