[SydPhil] Foundations of Physics Seminar, Thursday 6th March: Feraz Azhar on Prediction and Typicality in Multiverse Cosmology

[Matt Farr]

The first Sydney Foundations of Physics seminar of the year will be held on Thursday 6th March at 11:30am. Feraz Azhar from the Unit for HPS, University at Sydney will speak about prediction and typicality in multiverse cosmology - details below.

____________________________
Speaker. Feraz Azhar (Sydney)
Title. “Prediction and typicality in multiverse cosmology.”

Abstract. In the general context of multiverse cosmology, I investigate the efficacy of top-down anthropic reasoning based on the weak anthropic principle. I argue contrary to recent claims that it is not clear one can either dispense with notions of typicality altogether or presume typicality, in comparing resulting probability distributions with observations. I show in a top-down setting related to dark matter, that assumptions about typicality can significantly affect predictions, thereby providing a sense of how errors in reasoning regarding typicality translate to errors in the assessment of predictive power. I argue in favour of the explicit inclusion of a range of typicality measures in schemes invoking anthropic reasoning, with a view to extracting predictions from multiverse scenarios.

Link to article abstract: http://iopscience.iop.org/0264-9381/31/3/035005/article

Time. Thursday 6th March, 11:30-13:00.
Location. Muniment Room S401, Main Quad - A14, University of Sydney.
___________________________

All are welcome!

Please note that we are seeking speakers for future seminars - any area related to foundational concepts in physics (e.g. space, time, matter, motion, probability, measurement, etc.) is welcome, whether theoretical, philosophical or methodological. If you'd like to give a talk, or know of any future visitors who would like to give a talk, please contact me at matt.farr at sydney.edu.au<mailto:matt.farr at sydney.edu.au>.

The schedule for SydFoP talks is available here: http://newagendasstudyoftime.wordpress.com/sydfop/

Details for how to subscribe to the SydFoP mailing list are here: http://lists.arts.usyd.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydfop


All the best
Matt


__________________________________________

DR MATT FARR | Postdoctoral Research Fellow

New Agendas for the Study of Time<http://newagendasstudyoftime.wordpress.com/> | Centre for Time

School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry | Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences


UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

Room N494 | Quadrangle A14

University of Sydney | NSW | 2006


T +61 2 9114 0633<tel:%2B61%202%209114%200633> | F +61 2 9351 3918<tel:%2B61%202%209351%203918>

E matt.farr at sydney.edu.au<mailto:matt.farr at sydney.edu.au>

W mattfarr.co.uk<http://mattfarr.co.uk/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/sydphil/attachments/20140303/bc88bbe0/attachment-0002.html>