Editors:
- Published in cooperation with the renowned physics "think-tank" Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi
- Specially reworked versions of the prize-winning essays from among more than 150 submissions
- Contributors include top scientists, philosophers and thought leaders
Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection (FRONTCOLL)
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Table of contents (18 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This collection of prize-winning essays addresses the controversial question of how meaning and goals can emerge in a physical world governed by mathematical laws. What are the prerequisites for a system to have goals? What makes a physical process into a signal? Does eliminating the homunculus solve the problem? The three first-prize winners, Larissa Albantakis, Carlo Rovelli and Jochen Szangolies tackle exactly these challenges, while many other aspects (agency, the role of the observer, causality versus teleology, ghosts in the machine etc.) feature in the other award winning contributions. All contributions are accessible to non-specialists.
These seventeen stimulating and often entertaining essays are enhanced versions of the prize-winning entries to the FQXi essay competition in 2017.The Foundational Questions Institute, FQXi, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovativeideas integral to a deep understanding of reality, but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.
Editors and Affiliations
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Physics Department, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, USA
Anthony Aguirre
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Foundational Questions Institute, Decatur, USA
Brendan Foster, Zeeya Merali
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Wandering Towards a Goal
Book Subtitle: How Can Mindless Mathematical Laws Give Rise to Aims and Intention?
Editors: Anthony Aguirre, Brendan Foster, Zeeya Merali
Series Title: The Frontiers Collection
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75726-1
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Physics and Astronomy, Physics and Astronomy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-75725-4Published: 11 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-09310-5Published: 25 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-75726-1Published: 30 May 2018
Series ISSN: 1612-3018
Series E-ISSN: 2197-6619
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: VIII, 254
Number of Illustrations: 46 b/w illustrations
Topics: History and Philosophical Foundations of Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematical Logic and Foundations, Complex Systems, Philosophy of Science