Wavefunction branches are probably approximate eigenstates of hydrodynamic variables (and maybe more generally of slow local variables). Hydro variables are local averages of approximately locally conserved quantities, not restricted to fluids. They are most useful when the remaining degrees of fre| foreXiv
One day I will step into the modern era of email newsletter blogs like Substack, but until then you can use FeedRabbit to get an email notification when I post. Sign up is very fast, and you get an ad-free email in your inbox that looks like this: Continue reading| foreXiv
Scott Aaronson has a nice post discussing recent experimental progress in quantum computing from Google, Microsoft, and Quantinuum. In particular, he says Continue reading| foreXiv
[This post describes ideas generated in discussion with Markus Hauru, Curt von Keyserlingk, and Daniel Ranard.] An original dream of defining branches based on redundant records (aka redundant classical information, aka GHZ-like correlations) was that it would be possible to decompose the wav| foreXiv
[This post describes ideas generated in discussion with Markus Hauru, Curt von Keyserlingk, and Daniel Ranard.] Taylor & McCulloch have a tantalizing paper about which I'll have much to say in the future. However, for now I want to discuss the idea of the "compatibility" of branch decomposit| foreXiv
This post explains the relationship between (objective) collapse theories and theories of wavefunction branching. The formalizations are mathematically very simple, but it's surprisingly easily to get confused about observational consequences unless laid out explicitly. (Below I work in the non-r| foreXiv
Harold Ollivier has put out a nice paper generalizing my best result: Ollivier does a good job of summarizing why there is an urgent need to find a way to identify objectively classical variables in a many-body system without leaning on a preferred system-environment tensor decomposition. He| foreXiv
Although I've been repeatedly advised it's not a good social strategy, a glorious way to start a research paper is with specific, righteous criticism of your anonymous colleagues:{{2}} Transformers are deep feed-forward artificial neural networks with a (self)attention mechanism. They have been t| foreXiv
After years of not having an intuitive interpretation of the unital condition on CP maps, I recently learned a beautiful one: unitality means the dynamics never decreases the state's mixedness, in the sense of the majorization partial order. Consider the Lindblad dynamics generated by a set of L| foreXiv
[Summary: Constantly evolving tests for what counts as worryingly powerful AI is mostly a consequence of how hard it is to design tests that will identify the real-world power of future automated systems. I argue that Alan Turing in 1950 could not reliably distinguish a typical human from an appropr| foreXiv
Here's a collection of reviews of the arguments that artificial general intelligence represents an existential risk to humanity. They vary greatly in length and style. I may update this from time to time. (This is well-paired with Katja Grace's sum| foreXiv