This highly interdisciplinary book, covering more than six fields, from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contributions from eminent authors, addresses the interplay between content and context, reductionism and holism and their meeting point: the notion of emergence. Much of today’s science is reductionist (bottom-up); in other words, behaviour on one level is explained by reducing it to components on a lower level. Chemistry is reduced to atoms, ecosystems are explained in terms of DNA and proteins, etc. This approach fails quickly since we can’t...
This highly interdisciplinary book, covering more than six fields, from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contribut...
How does consciousness emerge from a brain that consists only of physical matter and electrical / chemical reactions? The deep mysteries of consciousness have plagued philosophers and scientists for thousands of years. This book approaches the problem through scientific studies that shed light on the neural mechanism of consciousness, and furthermore, delves into the possibility of artificial consciousness, a phenomenon that may ultimately solve the mystery. Finally, two key suggestions made in the book, namely, a method to test machine consciousness and a theory hypothesizing that...
How does consciousness emerge from a brain that consists only of physical matter and electrical / chemical reactions? The deep mysteries of consciousn...
Most of us are intuitively familiar with small social systems, such as families and soccer teams. Surprisingly, though, most of us are unaware of how complex these systems are or of the fact that they have a unique character distinguishing them from both populations and individuals. The current manuscript, which emerged from high-level scientific publications on the subject, aims to bridge this gap in our understanding of small social systems. The book aims to explain, illustrate, and model the unique and fascinating nature of small (social) systems by relying on deep scientific...
Most of us are intuitively familiar with small social systems, such as families and soccer teams. Surprisingly, though, most of us are unaware of h...
This book provides unique and comprehensive conceptual explanations of quantum field theory and the standard model of particle physics. How can fundamental particles exist as waves in the vacuum? How can such waves have particle properties such as inertia? What is behind the notion of virtual particles? Why and how do particles exert forces on one another? Not least: What are forces anyway? These are some of the central questions that have intriguing answers in Quantum Field Theory and the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Unfortunately, these theories are highly mathematical, so...
This book provides unique and comprehensive conceptual explanations of quantum field theory and the standard model of particle physics. How ca...
This highly interdisciplinary book, covering more than six fields, from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contributions from eminent authors, addresses the interplay between content and context, reductionism and holism and their meeting point: the notion of emergence. Much of today’s science is reductionist (bottom-up); in other words, behaviour on one level is explained by reducing it to components on a lower level. Chemistry is reduced to atoms, ecosystems are explained in terms of DNA and proteins, etc. This approach fails quickly since we can’t...
This highly interdisciplinary book, covering more than six fields, from philosophy and sciences all the way up to the humanities and with contribut...
How does consciousness emerge from a brain that consists only of physical matter and electrical / chemical reactions? The deep mysteries of consciousness have plagued philosophers and scientists for thousands of years. This book approaches the problem through scientific studies that shed light on the neural mechanism of consciousness, and furthermore, delves into the possibility of artificial consciousness, a phenomenon that may ultimately solve the mystery. Finally, two key suggestions made in the book, namely, a method to test machine consciousness and a theory hypothesizing that...
How does consciousness emerge from a brain that consists only of physical matter and electrical / chemical reactions? The deep mysteries of consciousn...
This wide-ranging book introduces information as a key concept not only in physics, from quantum mechanics to thermodynamics, but also in the neighboring sciences and in the humanities. The central part analyzes dynamical processes as manifestations of information flows between microscopic and macroscopic scales and between systems and their environment. Quantum mechanics is interpreted as a reconstruction of mechanics based on fundamental limitations of information processing on the smallest scales. These become particularly manifest in quantum chaos and in quantum...
This wide-ranging book introduces information as a key concept not only in physics, from quantum mechanics to thermodynamics, but also in the neigh...
What are life and death? Is it possible to understand their essence and give clear definitions? Countless books and articles have been devoted to trying to answer these intriguing questions. However, there are still no definite and generally accepted answers. The intrigue remains. And meanwhile, human attempts to vanquish death and achieve immortality continue apace.
This book is an attempt to answer the eternal questions about life and death by analyzing, synthesizing, and rethinking the known facts that characterize life. The material here should be of particular interest, as it...
What are life and death? Is it possible to understand their essence and give clear definitions? Countless books and articles have been devoted to t...
Free will is one of the most discussed topics in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy. Many even assume that our view of human nature and our social order are at stake. This book shows that the academic debate is often conducted under misleading assumptions: Practical freedom should not only be explored in quixotic laboratory experiments. Therefore, in the second part of Science and Free Willthe problem is related to real decisions in our everyday lives.
But first, important basic knowledge from over 2,500 years of our cultural history is conveyed. Learn how...
Free will is one of the most discussed topics in neuroscience, psychology and philosophy. Many even assume that our view of human nature and our so...
