Wandering Towards a Goal: How Can Mindless Mathematical Laws Give Rise to Aims and Intention?

by Brendan Foster, Anthony Aguirre, Zeeya Merali

Book Overview

This collection of prize-winning essays addresses the controversial question of how meaning and goals can emerge in a physical world governed by mathematical laws. What are the prerequisites for a system to have goals? What makes a physical process into a signal? Does eliminating the homunculus solve the problem? The three first-prize winners, Larissa Albantakis, Carlo Rovelli and Jochen Szangolies tackle exactly these challenges, while many other...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3319757253
• ISBN13: 9783319757254
• Release Date: June 2018
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 254 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"