Michael Epperson

Presented by the Greek Consulate General in Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University: The ethics and warfare documentary film The 11^th Day: Crete 1941, written and co-produced by Michael Epperson. The film chronicles The Battle of Crete and the civilian Cretan resistance against Hitler’s occupation forces in World War II. The film was presented, with introductory remarks, by Ioannis Stamatekos, Consul General for Greece. Loyola Marymount University, McIntosh Center, 8-10 pm.

https://cal.lmu.edu/event/the_11th_day_crete_1941

Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Symposium Presentation: “Relational Realism, Quantum Gravity, and the Holographic Principle”: Sebastian de Haro - Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam; Dennis Dieks - Philosophy of Science - Utrecht University; Jeroen van Dongen - Institute for History and Foundations of Science - Utrecht University; Elias Zafiris - Theoretical physics and mathematics, CPNS and Institute of Mathematics, University of Athens; Michael Epperson - Philosophy of Science, CPNS, College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, California State University, Sacramento; Karim Bschir - Philosophy of Science - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

After nearly a century of development, the central conceptual and interpretive problems in quantum mechanics still remain unsettled, even in the wake of marked improvements in technology and experimental methodology. Among these now infamous and interrelated problems are: [1] the problem of measurement; [2] quantum nonlocality; [3] the coherent integration of quantum and classical physical theories. In our current project, we demonstrated how all three of these difficulties can be properly understood as aspects of a single problem: the absence in quantum mechanics of a formal means of relating local to global in an extensive continuum. While this problem is most popularly exemplified in the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity, we demonstrated that its proper solution lies first in recognizing the centrality of local-global relations in all three of the aforementioned problems; and second, recognizing that the overall genesis of difficulty is the presumption of a fundamentally metrical theory of extension grounded in a set-theoretic structure. While this convention has clearly proven fruitful as a conceptual framework for formal physics, the latter's evolutionary leap in the early 20 th century with the advent of quantum theory and general relativity has rendered explicit its limitations—viz. its vulnerabilities to paradoxes, singularities, and infinites.

As a result of the increasing popularity of the decoherence-based interpretations of quantum mechanics, various conceptual difficulties have become better understood, particularly with respect to [1] the emergence of the ‘classical’ features of nature from the more fundamental quantum mechanical features; and [2] the problem of relating the local to the global in an extensive continuum—e.g., the infamous problem of relating quantum theory and general relativity. The central difficulty in both of these cases is that the conventional formulation of spatiotemporal extension is grounded in set-theoretic structure, where extension is fundamentally metrical—i.e., such that objects are fundamental to relations.

The solution proposed by philosopher Michael Epperson and physicist and mathematician Elias Zafiris is to delve beneath this set theoretic framework to the more substrative category theoretic framework where extension is fundamentally topological rather than metrical. In this way, fundamental quanta are defined as ‘units of logico-physical relation’ rather than ‘units of physical relata.’ By this framework, objects are always understood as relata, such that objects and relations are mutually implicative. This work is presented in a forthcoming volume, co-authored by Epperson and Zafiris, Foundations of Relational Realism: Quantum Mechanics, Category Theory, and the Philosophy of Process, Lexington Books (2013).

https://www.csuchico.edu/phil/colloquium-series/index.shtml

As a result of the increasing popularity of the decoherence-based interpretations of quantum mechanics, various conceptual difficulties have become better understood, particularly with respect to [1] the emergence of the ‘classical’ features of nature from the more fundamental quantum mechanical features; and [2] the problem of relating the local to the global in an extensive continuum—e.g., the infamous problem of relating quantum theory and general relativity. The central difficulty in both of these cases is that the conventional formulation of spatiotemporal extension is grounded in a set-theoretic structure, where extension is fundamentally metrical. In this way, objects are understood in the classical sense as fundamental to relations—i.e., relations presuppose objects but objects do not presuppose relations. Prior to quantum mechanics, this deficiency went largely unnoticed; but since it is a signature feature of quantum mechanics that it definitively proscribes specifying the existence of objects in abstraction from their relations, the attempt to depict quantum mechanical extensiveness as fundamentally metrical—again, such that objects are more fundamental than relations—is doomed from the beginning.

The solution proposed by philosopher Michael Epperson and physicist and mathematician Elias Zafiris is to delve beneath this set theoretic framework and explore the more substrative category theoretic framework, where extension is understood as fundamentally mereotopological rather than metrical. In this way, fundamental quanta are defined as ‘units of logico-physical relation’ rather than ‘units of physical relata.’ By this framework, objects are always understood as relata, such that not only do relations presuppose objects, but objects presuppose relations. In this way, objects and relations are properly understood as mutually implicative, precisely as exemplified in quantum mechanics. This work is presented in a forthcoming volume, co-authored by Epperson and Zafiris, Foundations of Relational Realism: A Topological Approach to Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Nature, Lexington Books (2013).

In the framework of quantum theory, events are identified as measurement outcomes referent to corresponding observables. The theory then provides the means of correlating these events. In this respect, the conceptual complexity of any ontological interpretation of quantum theory stems from two factors: [1] The existence of an event referring to a quantum system can be inferred only probabilistically, and only relative to a particular measurement context of a selected observable—a local context whereby the universe, represented by a global state vector, is decomposed into “system,” “measuring apparatus,” and “environment” with their respective state vectors. The actualization of probability-valuated, potential quantum events can be affirmed only after a measured result has been registered by the corresponding measuring apparatus. [2] The totality of events related to the behavior of a quantum system cannot be actualized within the same local measurement context due to the property of non-commutativity of quantum observables. These two factors together necessitate a thorough rethinking of our conceptual and mathematical representation of the notion of a physical continuum suited to the quantum domain of discourse. To this end, we propose a mereotopological, category theoretic interpretation of quantum mechanics that captures the relationship between a global description in terms of non-commutative algebras of quantum observables, and a description in terms of local Boolean algebras associated with particular measurement contexts. In this relational realist framework, which integrates key aspects of Whiteheadian philosophy and Grothendieck topology, the measuring apparatus and environment are thus understood not as external agents that causally affect a measured system, but rather as constitutive of an internal-relational mereotopological localizing scheme at the macroscopic level with respect to a global algebra of quantum observables.

Recent advances in modern science, particularly those occurring in the areas of quantum physics, cosmology, and the study of complex adaptive systems in nature, have begun to inspire an increasingly resonant shift in the conventional Western understanding of the natural world. The central pillars of the worldview inherited from the Enlightenment—Cartesian dualism and mechanistic materialism—have begun to crack under the weight of modern science. Quantum physics in particular has proven impossible to support with these pillars, and it was Werner Heisenberg who first suggested that the proper interpretation of quantum mechanics required a rehabilitation of Aristotelian entelecheia—the notion that a thing’s potentiality is a material constituent of its reality and not merely a figment of human understanding—that potentiality and actuality are both species of reality. Today, the most coherent interpretations of quantum mechanics have proven to be those that have committed either implicitly or explicitly to this Aristotelian notion. Eminent quantum theorist Roland Omnès has extended this Aristotelian rehabilitation even further, suggesting that the logical structure by which potentia are related in quantum mechanics is likewise a ‘real’ feature of nature, and not merely a function of human reasoning. Quantum theorist and mathematician Elias Zafiris and philosopher Michael Epperson will discuss how these ideas form the foundation of an intuitive interpretation of quantum mechanics, which they present formally in their forthcoming book, Foundations of Relational Realism: Quantum Mechanics, Category Theory, and the Philosophy of Process (Lexington Books, 2013).

https://www.csus.edu/cpns/events/epperson_zafiris_10242012.pdf

Final Panel Discussion - The Potential Relations of Quantum Mechanics and the Decline Effect

Presentation exploring potential connections of the the 'Decline Effect' and the Relational Realist interpretation of quantum mechanics (research co-sponsored by the Fetzer-Franklin Fund: https://www.fetzer-franklin-fund.org/publications-overview/foundations-relational-realism-topological-approach-quantum-mechanics-philosophy-nature/).

This symposium, “The Decline Effect: Evidence, Explanations, and Future Directions” was sponsored by the Fetzer-Franklin Fund: (https://www.fetzer-franklin-fund.org/events/decline-effect-evidence-explanations-future-directions/) held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, co-organized by Jonathan Schooler and Jan Walleczek. The participants sought advances in understanding how various scientific practices may negatively impact the search for truth and objectivity, and how the development of new protocols and open-access methodologies might best address the current reproducibility crisis in science.