Modal discourse concerns alternative ways things can be, e.g., what might be true, what isn’t true but could have been, what should be done. This entry focuses on counterfactual modality which concerns what is not, but could or would have been.
Category: Articles
The Mathematical Structure of Integrated Information Theory
Integrated Information Theory is one of the leading models of consciousness. It aims to describe both the quality and quantity of the conscious experience of a physical system, such as the brain, in a particular state. In this contribution, we propound the mathematical structure of the theory, separating the essentials from auxiliary formal tools.
Do Changes of Thermodynamic Entropy at a Remote Site Enhance the Quality of Anomalous Cognition?
To determine the degree to which changes of thermodynamic entropy affect the quality of anomalous cognition, we launched a three-year effort funded by the BIAL Foundation. Twenty-two San Francisco Bay Area sites were identified all of which were neutral regarding native changes of entropy.
EdgeScience 42
FEATURES
A Phenomenon Called Steve: A Discovery for Citizen Science
By Andrew May
Pat Price, Precognition, and “Star Wars”: A Reexamination of a Historic Remote Viewing Case
By Eric Wargo
BACKSCATTER
Global Consciousness and the Coronavirus—A Snapshot
By Roger Nelson
Device and Method for Responding to Influences of Mind
Mental influence detectors (100, 140, 400, 430) and corresponding methods provide fast and reliable results useful for detecting an influence of mind and hidden or classically non-inferable information.
Psi Research in China
This article describes some recent experimental and theoretical work in China, including successful attempts to train ESP abilities in blind children. It has been contributed by Professor Yi-Fang Chang, a physicist at China’s Yumman University.
Apportation: Amyr Amiden
Amyr Amiden is a Brazilian physical medium known for the appearance near him of ‘apports’ (psychically-materialized objects), sometimes on request. The phenomenon was investigated in 1994 by a team of researchers led by Stanley Krippner, on whose reports this article is based.
Evolution, Dynamical Systems and Markov Chains
In this post we present a high level introduction to evolution and to how we can use mathematical tools such as dynamical systems and Markov chains to model it. Questions about evolution then translate to questions about dynamical systems and Markov chains – some are easy to answer while others point to gaping holes in current techniques in algorithms and optimization.
Formalism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
The guiding idea behind formalism is that mathematics is not a body of propositions representing an abstract sector of reality but is much more akin to a game, bringing with it no more commitment to an ontology of objects or properties than ludo or chess.
Killing Science Fiction: Why Conscious States Cannot Be Copied or Repeated
Several philosophical problems arising from the physics of consciousness, including identity, duplication, teleportation, simulation, self-location, and the Boltzmann Brain problem, hinge on one of the most deeply held but unnecessary convictions of physicalism: the assumption that brain states and their corresponding conscious states can in principle be copied. In this paper I will argue against this assumption by attempting to prove the Unique History Theorem, which states, essentially, that conscious correlations to underlying quantum mechanical measurement events must increase with time and that every conscious state uniquely determines its history from an earlier conscious state.
Is the Multiverse Physics, Philosophy, or Something else Entirely?
The idea of the multiverse — or the theoretical possibility of infinite parallel universes–straddles a strange world between science fiction and a plausible hypothesis.
2014: What Scientific Idea is ready for Retirement? Falsifiability
Scientific method: Defend the Integrity of Physics
Attempts to exempt speculative theories of the Universe from experimental verification undermine science, argue George Ellis and Joe Silk.
What Is A Complexity Class?
Psi Open Data
Psi Open Data is an open repository for parapsychological and psychical research data, launched recently by the Society for Psychical Research.