From 'not wrong' to (maybe right)

Wilczek, Frank

doi:10.1038/428261a

“…Focusing on pure science, results are finally confronted with theoretical evaluations (not strictly 'predictions') in order to classify in degree of belief the possible models describing how 'the World works' (note that the acclaimed Popperian falsification is an idealistic scheme that however seldom applies in practice [23,24]). But in order to achieve the best selective power, individual results are combined together, as we have seen in this note.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On a curious bias arising when the $\sqrt{χ^2/ν}$ scaling prescription is first applied to a sub-sample of the individual results

D'Agostini

2020

Preprint

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As it is well known, the standard deviation of a weighted average depends only on the individual standard deviations, but not on the dispersion of the values around the mean. This property leads sometimes to the embarrassing situation in which the combined result 'looks' somehow at odds with the individual ones. A practical way to cure the problem is to enlarge the resulting standard deviation by the χ 2 /ν scaling, a prescription employed with arbitrary criteria on when to apply it and which individual results to use in the combination. But the 'apparent' discrepancy between the combined result and the individual ones often remains. Moreover this rule does not affect the resulting 'best value', even if the pattern of the individual results is highly skewed. In addition to these reasons of dissatisfaction, shared by many practitioners, the method causes another issue, recently noted on the published measurements of the charged kaon mass. It happens in fact that, if the prescription is applied twice, i.e. first to a sub-sample of the individual results and subsequently to the entire sample, then a bias on the result of the overall combination is introduced. The reason is that the prescription does not guaranty statistical sufficiency, whose importance is reminded in this script, written with a didactic spirit, with some historical notes and with a language to which most physicists are accustomed. The conclusion contains general remarks on the effective presentation of the experimental findings and a pertinent puzzle is proposed in the Appendix. "Observations, for example, such as are distant from each other by an interval of a few days [. . . ] are not to be used in the calculation as so many different positions, but it would be better to derive from them a single place, which would be, as it were, a mean among all, admitting, therefore, much greater accuracy than single observations considered separately."(F.C. Gauss, transl. by C.H. Davies)

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“…In this framework, time-asymmetric equations can be demonstrated to support the stability of constant solutions of CMLs against perturbations as compared to a strictly time-symmetric version. This result represents an intriguing application of a quotation by the 2004 physics Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek: 5 "The fundamental equations have the symmetry, but the stable solutions of these equations do not" [19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

Atmanspacher¹,

Filk²,

Scheingraber³

2006

AIP Conference Proceedings

1

0

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Stable neuronal assemblies are generally regarded as neural correlates of mental representations. Their temporal sequence corresponds to the experience of a direction of time, sometimes called the psychological time arrow. We show that the stability of particular, biophysically motivated models of neuronal assemblies, called coupled map lattices, is supported by causal interactions among neurons and obstructed by non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons. This surprising relation between causality and stability suggests that those neuronal assemblies that are stable due to causal neuronal interactions, and thus correlated with mental representations, generate a psychological time arrow. Yet this impact of causal interactions among neurons on the directed sequence of mental representations does not rule out the possibility of mentally less efficacious non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons.

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“…In this framework, time-asymmetric equations can be demonstrated to support the stability of constant solutions of CMLs against perturbations as compared to a strictly time-symmetric version. This result represents an intriguing application of a quotation by the 2004 physics Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek: f "The fundamental equations have the symmetry, but the stable solutions of these equations do not" [19].…”

Section: The CML Problemmentioning

confidence: 93%

The Significance of Causally Coupled, Stable Neuronal Assemblies for the Psychological Time Arrow

Atmanspacher

¹

,

Filk

²

,

Scheingraber

³

2005

Endophysics, Time, Quantum and the Subjective

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Stable neuronal assemblies are generally regarded as neural correlates of mental representations. Their temporal sequence corresponds to the experience of a direction of time, sometimes called the psychological time arrow. We show that the stability of particular, biophysically motivated models of neuronal assemblies, called coupled map lattices, is supported by causal interactions among neurons and obstructed by non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons. This surprising relation between causality and stability suggests that those neuronal assemblies that are stable due to causal neuronal interactions, and thus correlated with mental representations, generate a psychological time arrow. Yet this impact of causal interactions among neurons on the directed sequence of mental representations does not rule out the possibility of mentally less efficacious non-causal or anti-causal interactions among neurons.

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From 'not wrong' to (maybe right)

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

On a curious bias arising when the $\sqrt{χ^2/ν}$ scaling prescription is first applied to a sub-sample of the individual results

On a curious bias arising when the $\sqrt{χ^2/ν}$ scaling prescription is first applied to a sub-sample of the individual results

From the Dynamics of Coupled Map Lattices to the Psychological Arrow of Time

The Significance of Causally Coupled, Stable Neuronal Assemblies for the Psychological Time Arrow

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