Results for 'Paul Merriam'

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  1.  38
    Observations around Quantum Mechanics 812024.Paul Merriam & M. A. Z. Habeeb - manuscript
    Big Bang and the actual state of the universe; not information; entropic time is wrong; not discrete computation; 1-d topologies; QBism reconsidered; not Boltzmann brains; A-theories; the Big Bang and A-theories; not Boltzmann brains again.
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  2. Hilbert Space dimensions 3, 4, 5.Paul Merriam, Daniel Huber & Bob Hanlon - forthcoming - Foundations of Physics:6.
    This is a pdf of a Mathematica calculation that supplements the paper "Presentist Fragmentalism and Quantum Mechanics" forthcoming in Foundations of Physics. In that paper the Born rule (or at least a progenitor) is derived from experimental conditions on the mutual observations of two fragments. In this pdf the experimental conditions are applied to Hilbert space dimensions 3, 4, and 5. It turns out each of these have a 1-dimensional solution space which, it is hoped, can be interpretated as the (...)
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  3. Change in Entropy as a Function of McTaggart's A-series and B-series.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    This careful note is a very initial foray into the issue of the change in entropy with respect to both McTaggart’s A-series and his B-series. We find a possible solution to the Past Hypothesis problem.
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  4. (1 other version)From McTaggert to AdS_5 geometry.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The purpose of this note is to show how an 'AB-series' interpretation of time, given in a companion paper, leads, surprisingly, directly to the physicists' important AdS5 geometry. This is not a theory of 2 time dimensions. Rather, it is a theory of 1 time dimension that has both B-series and A-series characteristics. -/- To summarize the result, a spacetime in terms of 1. the earlier-to-later aspect of time, and 2. the related future-present-past aspect of time, and 3. 3-d space, (...)
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  5. An Argument for Temporal A-theories Based on the Calculus of Qualia 12 23 2022.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We give an argument for temporal A-theories based on the calculus of qualia.
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  6. More Notes on Time, After “9 Temporal Knowledge Arguments...”.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    I give more notes about time and quantum mechanics, including notes about entropic time, superdeterminism, retro-causality, Spotlight Presentism, QFT, empirical outcomes of experiments in the present only, and Schrodinger's equation.
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  7. Fragmental Presentism and Quantum Mechanics.Paul Merriam - 2021
    This paper develops a Fragmentalist theory of Presentism and shows how it can help to develop a interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are several fragmental interpretations of physics. In the interpretation of this paper, each quantum system forms a fragment, and fragment f1 makes a measurement on fragment f2 if and only if f2 makes a corresponding measurement on f1. The main idea is then that each fragment has its own present (or ‘now’) until a mutual quantum measurement—at which time (...)
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  8. (4 other versions)Concatenated quantum gravity papers 1.Paul Merriam & M. A. Z. Habeeb - manuscript
    The first purpose of this series of articles is to introduce case studies on how current AI models can be used in the development of a possible theory of quantum gravity, their limitations, and the role the researcher has in steering the development in the right direction, even highlighting the errors, weaknesses and strengths of the whole process. The second is to introduce the new Presentist Fragmentalist ontology as a framework and use it for developing theories of quantum gravity and (...)
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  9. Schrodinger's Cat meets McTaggart and the problem of other minds.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    This paper proposes an interpretation of time that is an 'A-theory' in that it incorporates both McTaggart's A-series and his B-series. The A-series characteristics are supposed to be 'ontologically private' analogous to qualia in the problem of other minds and is given a definition. The main idea is that the experimenter and the cat do not share the same A-series characteristics, e.g the same 'now'. So there is no single time at which the cat gets ascribed different states. It is (...)
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  10. How to Include Qualia in Science.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    How can we expand science to include what-it’s-like information like qualia? This paper gives the beginning of one possible way forward. It is possible to include qualia in communications as their own terms.
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  11. More Observations.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Anthropic principle, Perspectival ontology, Hard problem, Why something rather than nothing, Life after death, Buddhism, God.
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  12. Towards an AB-series interpretation of time in physics.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    How can McTaggart's A-series notion of time be incorporated into physics while retaining the B-series notion? It may be the A-series 'now' can be construed as ontologically private. How is that modeled? Could a definition of a combined AB-series entropy help with the Past Hypothesis problem? What if the increase in entropy as a system goes from earlier times to later times is canceled by the decrease in entropy as a system goes from future, to present, to past?
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  13. More on McTaggart's AB-series in physics.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    More on McTaggart's AB-series in physics, with integrals.
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  14. Perspectival QM and Presentism: a New Paradigm.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We motivate and develop a perspectival A-theory of time (future/present/past) and probe its implied interpretation of quantum mechanics. It will emerge that, as a first take, the time of relativity is a B-series (earlier-times to later-times) and the time of quantum mechanics is an A-series. There is philosophical motivation for the idea that mutual quantum measurement happens when and only when the systems’ A-series become one mutual A-series, as in the way qualia work in the Inverted Spectrum. This seems to (...)
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  15. McTaggartian Spacetime: physics in the new theory of time.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We define and develop a notion of spacetime that incorporates both McTaggart's A-series and his B-series that is consistent with special relativity. This 'McTaggartian spacetime' or 'AB-spacetime' requires *five* not *4* variables. The interface of two AB-spacetimes from different *ontological perspectives* is quantum mechanical. This note concentrates on the physics and not the philosophy. This is an invitation to contribute to a theory that is a work in progress.
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  16. (2 other versions)McTaggart meets Schrodinger's Cat.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    This paper proposes an interpretation of time that is an 'A-theory' in that it incorporates both McTaggart's A-series and his B-series. The A-series characteristics are supposed to be 'ontologically private' analogous to qualia in the problem of other minds, such as in the Inverted Spectrum thought experiment, and is given a definition. The main idea is then that the experimenter and the cat do not share the same A-series characteristics, e.g. the same 'now', to some extent. So there is no (...)
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  17. Qualia Logic.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The logic of qualia is different than classical logic. We take the first steps in defining it and applying it to the Hard Problem.
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  18. On the Big Bang, Qualia, Einstein’s Train, Temporal Flow Rates, Existence, Free Will, Hard Problems, etc.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    On Einstein's Train and the Big Bang in Fragmental Presentism, Temporal Flow Rates, Existence, Free Will, Qualia, Hard Problems, etc.
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  19. Notes for “Calculus of Qualia...” 9 16 2022 work in progress.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    1. First section notes: subtraction -/- Evidently -/- (1) black – black = empty-set -/- because anything minus itself is the empty set, but -/- (2) █ – █ = █ + █ -/- because there are two instances of black on the left and two instances of black on the right...
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  20. A Curiosity about Newtonian Gravity v. 2.0.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We give a very curious curiosity about Newtonian Gravity.
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  21. A Curiosity about Newtonian Gravity.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We give a very curious curiosity about Newtonian gravity.
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  22. A new theory of time 2 29 2020.Paul Merriam & Jeremy Horne - manuscript
    We motivate and develop a new theory of time and apply it to a few thought experiments in physics.
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  23. Correction to “A Theory of the Big Bang in McTaggart’s Time”.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The line that reads “But this leaves open the question of why the Big Bang did not happen a billion years before now, such that we are also a billion years before now.5” should instead read “But this leaves open the question of why the Big Bang did not happen a billion years before it did, such that we are also a billion years before now.5” -/- Merriam, P. A Theory of the Big Bang in McTaggart’s Time. Axiomathes 32 (...)
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  24.  95
    What's Wrong with Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics.Paul Merriam & M. A. Z. Habeeb - manuscript
    What's wrong with Copenhagen, GRW, Superdeterminism, QBism, Many-worlds, Bohmianism, and Retrocausality, and how theses differ from Presentist Fragmentalism.
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  25.  79
    If the Sun Suddenly Went Out in the Presentist Fragmentalist Interpretation of QM.Paul Merriam & M. A. Z. Habeeb - manuscript
    If the sun were to suddenly go out we wouldn't know it for 8 minutes. But if Alice is sitting in the middle of the sun and measures one of a pair of entangled particles and we measure the other one, what direction she measures her particle in has instantaneous effects on the one we measure. This is resolved in the Presentist Fragmentalist interpretation of QM.
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  26. McTaggart’s Time, the Schrodinger equation, Minkowski space, and Qualia 3 30 2023.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    1. Schrodinger Equation, fragmentalism, total time T, Euclidean space 2. Does the A-series have the properties of qualia?
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  27. (1 other version)Six Applications of the Calculus of Qualia 1 30 2023.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Application 1. The case against Materialism and Illusionism Application 2. Ineffability Application 3. Hard Problems Application 4. Knowledge Argument questions Application 5. Argument for A-theories of time Application 6. Possible qualia are necessary.
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  28. A Mechanism for Life after Death.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    A mechanism for life after death is given.
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  29. (1 other version)Knowledge Arguments for Time 12 23 2022.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Jackson (1982) introduced the Knowledge Argument to elucidate the phenomenal, interior aspects of experience. In 1908 McTaggart defined two series that characterize one dimension of time, the A-series and the B-series. The A-series is usually thought to be phenomenal Farr (2019), SEP (2018). Thus there is the possibility of giving a Knowledge Argument for time. One (informal) statement of the classical Knowledge Argument might be “Mary knows all the facts about color qualia but lives in a black-and-white room. Upon being (...)
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  30. Postscripts.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Postscripts to McTaggart meets Schrodinger's Cat.
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  31. Einstein's Train in Fragmentalist Presentism.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    It is often thought the relativity of simultaneity is inconsistent with presentism. This would be troubling as it conflicts with common sense and—arguably—the empirical data. This note gives a novel fragmentalist-presentist theory that allows for the (non-trivial) relativity of simultaneity. A detailed account of the canonical moving train argument is considered. Alice, standing at the train station, forms her own ontological fragment, in which Bob’s frame of reference, given by the moving train, is modified by the Lorentz transformations. On the (...)
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  32. From McTaggart to AdS^5 signature v. 4.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The purpose of this yet-another version of this note is to make another attempt to show how an 'AB-series' interpretation of time, given in a companion paper, leads, surprisingly, apparently, to the signature of the physicists' important AdS^5 geometry. This is not a theory of 2 time dimensions. Rather, it is a theory of 1 time dimension that has both A-series and B-series characteristics.
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  33. Hybrid Time Physics.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    I accept that McTaggart's A-series and B-series are not inter-reducible and that both are needed for a complete temporal description of a physical system. I consider the Wigner's Friend thought experiment. The A-series are associated with each (quantum) system, and relativity is associated with the B-series. I consider temporal evolution through this 'hybrid' time. We may define the rate of temporal flow as 1 B-series second per A-series second.
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  34. A Knowledge Argument for Time.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    On being released from her black-and-white room into a colorful world it would seem Mary learns something new (the Knowledge Argument). On being released from his B-theory room into an A-theory world it would seem Mark learns something new (the Temporal Knowledge Argument). These thought experiments are parallel to each other and can inform each other.
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  35. Existence and the Big Bang 8 21 2021.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We start by asking the question of ‘why there is something rather than nothing’ and change this to the question of ‘what are the weakest assumptions for existence’ Eagle [1]. Then we give a kind of Fragmental Perspectivalism. Within this Fragmentalist interpretation of quantum mechanics (each quantum mechanical system forms a fragment) Merriam [2], it turns out McTaggart’s [3] A-series of time (the A-series is future to the present to the past) has a kind of perspectivalism. We then use (...)
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  36. Mechanism for Life After Death v. 2.0.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    We give a mechanism for how awareness could (indeed *must*) continue after death.
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  37. Do Qualia exist Necessarily?Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Why is there something rather than nothing? I don't know. But I give an argument that qualia exist *necessarily*. The *possibility* of the existence of red qualia requires actual red qualia to specify what the possibility is a possibility *of*.
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  38. Selected Problems in Realist Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics and a Novel Suggestion.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    In this short paper I suggest a few properties a good realist interpretation of quantum mechanics ought to have. Then I canvass several interpretations, most of which do not have these properties, and further suggest problems specific to each one. Then I give a reference to a novel interpretation that solves all of these problems.
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  39. Equations vs. Qualations.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    A *qualation* does not contain merely references to qualia, but contains actual qualia. There are many differences to equations. Qualations are irreducibly 1st-person and are required for the statement of a hard problem.
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  40. Three Arguments from Science *for* Free Will.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    I give three brief scientifically informed arguments that free will is causally efficacious over-and-above the efficaciousness of its physical substrate. (This is a second attempt at putting it up on PhilPapers--there seems to have been some problem with downloading the previous version.).
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  41. Do Qualia Exist Necessarily? v. 2.0.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Why is there something rather than nothing? I don’t know. But ‘nothing’ may not be the correct default state. It may be that the existence of possibilities requires fewer (weaker) assumptions. In this case, arguably, we should start with the existence of possibilities and not ‘nothing’. In this case, there exists the possibility of (for example) red qualia. But the possible existence of a red quale does not delineate what it is the possibility of if the possibility contains only a (...)
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  42. Notes for "Existence and the Big Bang".Paul Merriam - manuscript
    This brief note gives a modest argument that there may be states-of-affairs that require fewer (weaker) assumptions than the assumption or 'default state' of Nothingness. It is meant as an add-on to the paper "Existence and the Big Bang" and to work in concert with several other papers on PhilPapers. This is meant to modestly help the idea that the Big Bang could have happened in the first place.
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  43. Why we are almost certainly *not* in a computer simulation.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    I give a reason we are almost certainly *not* in a simulation. I also consider what happens if two simulators simulate each other.
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  44. Time is not Entropic in Origin.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Many researchers suppose that the forward direction of time as a consequence of increasing entropy. But the human brain, including the human brain with memories, and life in general, are regarded as pockets of decreasing entropy, so as to accommodate the continual addition of memories and abilities. But then humans and life in general should see time going ‘backward’ in some sense. But we do not. Therefore, time is not entropic in origin. -/- The purpose of this note is to (...)
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  45. Observations 1 30 2023.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Reference in light of Qualia Calculus (QC); Hard Problems in light of QC; The number of qualia in a room in light of QC; verification of 1st-person phenomena; more advanced neurology; 3rd-person and 1st-person aspects of a system; their symmetries; Well-tempered Clavier; the past is not determined; argument for A-theories in light of QC; frames of reference; Standard Model; String Theory; Bach; time; causality; Schrodinger equation; technology; earth; thick present; Zen; the river; free will; materialists in light of QC.
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  46. Mechanism for Awareness after Death 12 23 2022.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The only processes that could correlate to awareness thatgo on after brain-death are quantum processes. These processes contain information. But in quantum mechanics information is never lost. Therefore this information goes on after death and the awareness will still be correlated to it. Therefore awareness goes on after death.
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  47. (4 other versions)Calculus of Qualia: Introduction to Qualations 7 2 2022.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    The basic idea is to put qualia into equations (broadly understood) to get what might as well be called qualations. Qualations arguably have different truth behaviors than the analogous equations. Thus ‘black’ has a different behavior than ‘ █ ’. This is a step in the direction of a ‘calculus of qualia’. It might help clarify some issues.
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  48. The ineffable now in physics.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    While physicists know how to use quantum mechanics, there is no consensus on what quantum mechanics is a mechanics of. The aim of this paper is to introduce the beginning of what might turn out to be an interpretation of quantum mechanics—one that leaves all calculated probabilities intact. The basic idea is that quantum mechanics describes the objective world, but there must be added to it ineffable variables, one of which is the temporal 'now'. Ineffable variables are not 'hidden variables'.
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  49. On the Solutions to the Hard Problems.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    There is a profound difference between asking a 'hard problem' and asking a 'hard problem' that has qualia in the question. There are plausible answers to the former that are nevertheless clearly not answers to the latter. I give a method by which hard problems will be able to be solved, if possible. I speculate on the (possible) causal efficaciousness of consciousness in evolution and in quantum mechanics.
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  50. 26 More Observations.Paul Merriam - manuscript
    Observations on why is there something rather than nothing, fine tuning, beauty, time, intelligent design, qualia, Zen, Bach, Jesus, poetry, consciousness.
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