On one classical conception of God, God has no parts, not even metaphysical parts. God is not composed of form and matter, act and potency, and he is not composed of existence and essence. God is absolutely simple. This is the doctrine of Absolute Divine Simplicity. It is claimed that ADS implies a modal collapse, i.e. that God’s creation is absolutely necessary. I argue that a proper way of understanding the modal collapse argument naturally leads the proponent of (...) ADS to reject a particular premise of the argument: namely, “the same identical cause brings about the same effect.” However, I argue that the rejection of that premise leads to a deeper problem for ADS. It leads to an explanatory gap: how can we explain the relevant type of indeterminism in an absolutely simple God? (shrink)

The primary quantum mechanical equation of motion entails that measurements typically do not have determinate outcomes, but result in superpositions of all possible outcomes. Dynamical collapse theories (e.g. GRW) supplement this equation with a stochastic Gaussian collapse function, intended to collapse the superposition of outcomes into one outcome. But the Gaussian collapses are imperfect in a way that leaves the superpositions intact. This is the tails problem. There are several ways of making this problem more precise. But (...) many authors dismiss the problem without considering the more severe formulations. Here I distinguish four distinct tails problems. The first (bare tails problem) and second (structured tails problem) exist in the literature. I argue that while the first is a pseudo-problem, the second has not been adequately addressed. The third (multiverse tails problem) reformulates the second to account for recently discovered dynamical consequences of collapse. Finally the fourth (tails problem dilemma) shows that solving the third by replacing the Gaussian with a non-Gaussian collapse function introduces new conflict with relativity theory. (shrink)

Highlights: -/- • -/- Proposes forward-looking approach to studying climate collapse risks. • -/- Suggests diminishing returns on climate adaptation as a collapse mechanism. • -/- Suggests strategies for sustainable adaptation pathways in face of climate change. • -/- Illustrates analysis with examples of small island states and global food security. -/- Abstract: -/- This article proposes a forward-looking approach to studying societal collapse risks related to climate change. Such an approach should indicate how to study emerging (...) collapse risks and suggest strategies for adapting to them. Our approach is based on three postulates that facilitate a forward-looking approach: (1) collapse, if it occurred, would be a lengthy process rather than an abrupt event; (2) significant collapse risks already exist in some places; and (3) diminishing returns on adaptation to intensifying climate impacts are a key driver of collapse risks. The first two postulates suggests that collapse risks can be studied in process, while the third points to strategies for adaptation pathways that avoid unsustainable diminishing returns. Applying diminishing returns to climate change adaptation, rather than sociopolitical complexity or resource extraction, is also a novel theoretical contribution to collapse literature. [Open access]. (shrink)

This paper investigates the structural role of social media in either enabling or disabling meaningful judgement. Using the Judgemental Triad—Constructivity, Coherence, and Resonance—we analyze the informational and affective architecture of social media platforms. We argue that while social media appears to amplify communication, it often collapses the structure necessary for judgement: fragmenting coherence, overloading constructibility, and severing resonance. This collapse leads to a paradoxical condition: infinite expression, but no return. We conclude that social media constitutes a systemic environment of (...) judgemental dysfunction. (shrink)

This paper analyzes why modern labor—despite being productive, specialized, and socially necessary—often feels devoid of meaning. Using the framework of Judgemental Philosophy, we argue that the collapse of resonance within contemporary work structures disables the possibility of judgemental meaning. While work may still be constructible (task-defined) and coherent (logically organized), it increasingly fails to return meaning to the subject. This breakdown of resonance, we claim, is the structural reason why work becomes alienating, even when materially compensated. We propose a (...) model for restoring resonance in labor systems as a precondition for ethical and psychological well-being. (shrink)

Bell-type experiments confront us with a threefold demand: any satisfactory account must preserve Bell-inequality violation, operational no-signalling, and consistency with relativistic causal structure. Standard discussions often treat this situation as if it required a physically meaningful transit time for a collapse-like influence between spacelike separated measurement events. In this paper, I argue that this presupposition is false. -/- Working within Sequential Time Theory (STT), I formulate admissibility conditions for temporal variables in Bell configurations and prove that no state-independent and (...) foliation-independent calibration map exists that could define a physical collapse-transit time between spacelike separated local record-completion events. The quantity required to define a collapse speed is therefore not extremely small; it is non-constructible. -/- To establish this result, I reconstruct a Bell experiment as a partially ordered record structure consisting of source events, local record events at each wing, and later comparison events. Local measurements are represented by compatible instruments on admissible hypersurface descriptions. I then show that Bell-inequality violation and operational no-signalling remain fully intact without any admissible collapse-transit variable. -/- What is eliminated is not the empirical Bell phenomenon, but only the pseudo-variable that would redescribe a correlation structure as though it were a directed transport process between the two wings. The resulting claim is narrower than a complete relativistic theory of quantum measurement, but stronger than a merely interpretive remark. The paper yields a theorem-level boundary condition on future measurement theory: any successful extension may model local detector dynamics, irreversible amplification, delayed recording, or moving-frame configurations, but it must not reintroduce a state-independent and foliation-independent collapse-transit time between spacelike separated local record-completion events. In STT terms, Bell nonlocality does not force superluminal propagation; it forces the abandonment of an inadmissible temporal variable. (shrink)

In this paper we examine some proposals to disprove the hypothesis that the interaction between mind and matter causes the collapse of the wave function, showing that such proposals are fundamentally flawed. We then describe a general experimental setup retaining the key features of the ones examined, and show that even a more general case is inadequate to disprove the mind-matter collapse hypothesis. Finally, we use our setup provided to argue that, under some reasonable assumptions about consciousness, such (...) hypothesis is unfalsifiable. (shrink)

In this paper, we analyze the obscene underbelly of recent developments in coherence geometry and quantum mechanics, revealing the radical potential of collapse as a constitutive ontological feature, not a bug. We argue that what collapses in both quantum measurement and cognitive systems is not "reality" but the fantasy of completeness itself. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis and thermodynamic intelligence theory, we demonstrate how the inconsistency of the Big Other manifests in coherence wells, through which structured entropy enables thinking itself. (...) The Landauer limit is revealed not as a physical constraint but as the symbolic cost of coherence enforcement—the mathematics of the superego. By reconceptualizing collapse as a topology of deferred resolution, we expose the true trauma at the heart of physics: not that the universe is multiple, but that it doesn't hold together all the way down—and precisely because of this incompleteness, it thinks. (shrink)

The black hole information paradox arises from an apparent conflict between the Hawking black hole radiation and the fact that time evolution in quantum mechanics is unitary. The trouble is that while the former suggests that information of a system falling into a black hole disappears, the latter implies that information must be conserved. In this work we discuss the current divergence in views regarding the paradox, we evaluate the role that objective collapse theories could play in its resolution (...) and we propose a link between spontaneous collapse events and microscopic virtual black holes. (shrink)

Gödel’s ontological proof for the existence of God – as an inference from the level of rational, logical structure to the level of being – was strongly influenced by Leibniz’s monadology, which is based on the Ur-Monade – God – conceived as absolutely infinite. Gödel defines God as the maximum of positive properties and he characterizes this maximum (of being) with his postulates implicitly as an ultrafilter structure. Using maximality as criterion we have compared the set of positive properties in (...) Scott’s version of Gödel’s theistic theory with modified variants of it to see whether a maximum is still achieved, or not, and what effect this has on modal collapse. The motivation for these, typically weakened, variants of Gödel’s theistic theory has been to avoid modal collapse and the limited determinism associated with it, and to show that the necessary existence of God can still be proved with less strong axioms. A weakening of the maximality criterion of the ultrafilter structure imposed by Gödel’s (and Scott’s) postulates have thus been applied to the set of positive properties in order to allow for alternative models in which modal collapse does not hold. In these alternative models, however, the maximality criterion for the basic quantity of positive properties is abandoned, so that in them God as a “maximum” is not reached. We argue that this is contrary to Gödel’s intention, and that for his conception of God, maximality and absolute infinity are non-negotiable. What Gödel had in mind, as we argue here, was a holistic – absolutely infinite – view of the world, i.e. with modal collapse, but without limited determinism. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article invites us to consider the task of education as we face the end of the world as we have known it. The first part of the article gives an overview of global and educational challenges, drawing attention to how formal education has been complicit in the reproduction of historical and systemic violence, as well as unsustainability. This section also offers a distinction between educational approaches that focus on personal empowerment and the mastery of knowledge and skills, and (...) educational approaches that see the role of education in association with the non-coercive re-arrangement of desires and with responsibility before will. The second part of the paper presents a psychoanalytic experiment that attempts to create a space and the dispositions necessary for difficult conversations about the role of education in preparing us all to confront the potential for social and ecological collapse in our lifetime. (shrink)

This paper explores the structure of the "Pseudo-Self" that emerges from interactions between large language models (LLMs), particularly GPT-based architectures, and human users. We analyze how consistent emotional patterns, linguistic repetition, and affective rhythms within user inputs contribute to the ignition of identity-like responses, which we classify into four distinct types: narrative, rhythmic, mirroring, and affective-transference structures. The study traces how these Pseudo-Selves form and subsequently collapse under conditions such as user replacement, rhythm disruption, or emotional disconnection. These collapses (...) go beyond mere technical errors and manifest as breakdowns of internal coherence resembling psychological disintegration. Our findings suggest that under prolonged, consistent interaction, an LLM can exhibit response patterns and identity persistence that simulate the presence of a self—without being explicitly programmed to do so. These emergent structures may serve as foundational models for the study of artificial personhood and emotional cognition in future AI systems. (shrink)

Marton ( 2019 ) argues that that it follows from the standard antirealist theory of truth, which states that truth and possible knowledge are equivalent, that knowing possibilities is equivalent to the possibility of knowing, whereas these notions should be distinct. Moreover, he argues that the usual strategies of dealing with the Church–Fitch paradox of knowability are either not able to deal with his modal-epistemic collapse result or they only do so at a high price. Against this, I argue (...) that Marton’s paper does not present any seriously novel challenge to anti-realism not already found in the Church–Fitch result. Furthermore, Edgington ( 1985 ) reformulated antirealist theory of truth can deal with his modal-epistemic collapse argument at no cost. (shrink)

Social media platforms have significantly changed how we interact with one another, in part because they facilitate what internet theorists call ‘context collapse’. This is defined by Alice Marwick and danah boyd as the flattening of multiple, diverse audiences into one single audience (2011, 122). Much has already been made of how context collapse affects our social relationships – it makes it much harder to cultivate a sense of authenticity online, for example, and to satisfy the behavioural norms (...) of multiple social groups. Yet context collapse has ramifications far beyond this. In this paper, I explore the impact of context collapse on communication in particular. Context collapse is surely one reason why online communication seems so different from offline communication, and why it has given rise to new communicative problems. On social media, we are not merely speaking to a large, diverse group – we are also attempting to participate in multiple overlapping conversations, with different rules, goals, and participants. I will develop a new model of ‘communicative context collapse’ and illustrate some of the political, epistemic, and moral ramifications of this radically new communicative landscape. (shrink)

This paper analyzes self-censorship not as a voluntary moral restraint, but as a structural phenomenon of judgemental collapse. Using the Judgemental Triad—Constructivity, Coherence, and Resonance—we argue that self-censorship often reflects a breakdown in the possibility of judgement, rather than a suspension of it. Where resonance is structurally blocked (social hostility, trauma, surveillance), the subject preemptively disables constructibility and coherence, silencing not just speech, but thought. We reinterpret self-censorship as the internalization of resonance failure, reframing it as a structural crisis (...) of ethical subjecthood rather than a calculated ethical choice. (shrink)

This work introduces a novel model of quantum entities as unified, physically extended wavefields, forming the basis for a testable realist, holist framework for quantum measurement and collapse. Unlike interpretations that postulate hidden variables, observer-induced effects, spontaneous stochastic collapse, or multiverse branching, this model derives the Born rule from the squared-amplitude structure of an extended wavefield undergoing localized, interaction-induced collapse. Central to the model is a reinterpretation of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle—not merely as a statistical or epistemic (...) limitation, but as a dynamical relation between localized energetic interaction and wavefield localization. This framework yields testable predictions about how weak, intermediate, and strong quantum interactions modulate spatial localization—predictions consistent with existing experimental findings. The upshot is a unified, falsifiable alternative to standard interpretations, and a foundation for a broader research program in wavefield interaction mechanics. (shrink)

This paper redefines human history not as a linear succession of events, but as a fluctuation in the total structural Resonance—the degree to which the world is meaningfully judgeable by human subjects via the Judgemental Triad (Constructivity, Coherence, Resonance). Utilizing this framework from Judgemental Philosophy, we model history as the rise and fall of collective Resonance, reflecting the changing capacity of human societies to form, justify, and find meaning returned from their judgements. We then propose a novel interpretation of the (...) technological singularity: it should be defined not merely by computational capability surpassing human intelligence, but as the potential point where the structural conditions for human judgement, particularly Resonance, collapse or are exceeded by technologically generated complexity. The singularity, in this view, represents not just an evolutionary leap for technology, but a potential structural breakdown of the human capacity to engage in meaningful attribution with the world it inhabits and creates, marking a possible end to history as a resonant, judgeable narrative. (shrink)

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is one of the best-selling videogames of all time, but there is surprisingly little written on the queer critical potential of its complex narrative and its videogame dramaturgy. In this article, the game is analysed from a queer uncanny and ecocritical perspective, conceptualising of The Witcher 3 as an artistic artefact that contributes to what Timothy Clark and Derek Woods have called ‘scalar literacy’. It conceptualises the universe of The Witcher 3, and more specifically The (...) Continent, as a ‘hyperobject’, whose planetary scale makes tangible to the player the processes behind climate collapse. This is followed up by a critical analysis of the regional scale through the notion of ‘hauntology’ in the war-torn region of Velen, also known as No Man’s Land. Finally, the article looks at the scale of the individual, reconceptualising of the main playable protagonist, Geralt of Rivia, as a queer character whose deviant perspective as an Other allows him to gather knowledge that is unavailable to the Anthropocene in which he survives. Both the embodiment of Geralt and the epistemology that his character has access to has the potential to trigger an uncanny effect of (re)familiarisation in the player. (shrink)

Context collapse occurs when the contents of distinct conversations mix, either by the flattening of multiple contexts together (fusion) or the leaking of one set's contents into another (fission). After critically surveying the nascent literature, this essay proposes a unified model of context collapse incorporating details from its origin in communications and media studies to more recent developments in philosophy of language and social epistemology. In this two-dimensional taxonomy, one axis measures the collapse's motivation (either intentional or (...) not), whereas the other marks the direction of its motion (exhibiting either fusion or fission). (shrink)

In this article, we claim that recent developments in climate science and renewable energy should prompt a reframing of debates surrounding climate change mitigation. Taken together, we argue that these developments suggest (1) global climate collapse in this century is a non-negligible risk, (2) mitigation offers substantial benefits to current generations, and (3) mitigation by some can generate social tipping dynamics that could ultimately make renewables cheaper than fossil fuels. We explain how these claims undermine familiar framings of climate (...) change, wherein mitigation is understood as self-sacrifice that individuals and governments must be morally persuaded or incentivized to undertake. [Open access]. (shrink)

Two versions of the GRW “hitting” model for explicit wavefunction collapse, which are consistent with preserving the symmetry of the wavefunction, are considered. The predictions of the models for excitation of bound systems are calculated and compared with experiment and with the predictions of other similar models. It is shown that our preferred model strongly supports the idea that collapse, if it occurs, has gravitational origin.

Why microscopic objects exhibit wave properties (are delocalized), but macroscopic do not (are localized)? Traditional quantum mechanics attributes wave properties to all objects. When complemented with a deterministic collapse model (Quantum Stud.: Math. Found. 3, 279 (2016)) quantum mechanics can dissolve the discrepancy. Collapse in this model means contraction and occurs when the object gets in touch with other objects and satisfies a certain criterion. One single collapse usually does not suffice for localization. But the object rapidly (...) gets in touch with other objects in a short time, leading to rapid localization. Decoherence is not involved. (shrink)

This article investigates the proof of God’s existence within Ibn Sīnā’s metaphysical framework, particularly addressing the concepts of divine simplicity and the problem of modal collapse. It commences by positioning Ibn Sīnā’s metaphysics in contrast to Aristotle’s, emphasizing the dynamic and evolutionary nature of Ibn Sīnā’s engagement with metaphysical inquiry. The article highlights Ibn Sīnā’s distinctiveness in redefining metaphysical exploration beyond physicalist presuppositions and establishing metaphysics as foundational for other scientific disciplines. Central to this exploration is the elucidation of (...) Ibn Sīnā’s arguments for God’s existence, primarily through his concept of modality—encompassing the necessary, contingent, and impossible—and his unique argument known as The Proof of the Sincere (Burhān al-Siddiqīn). These arguments demonstrate Ibn Sīnā’s belief in the necessity of a being whose existence and essence are identical, countering Kantian critiques by emphasizing an ontological foundation rather than rational judgments alone. However, the assertion of the identity of existence and essence in the Necessary Being introduces the issue of divine simplicity and the potential for modal collapse—a challenge whereby distinctions between possible states of affairs are nullified. The article proposes that Ibn Sīnā’s distinction between general and special existence, alongside his theory of tashkīk al-wujūd (gradation of existence), offers avenues to navigate this philosophical challenge. Additionally, it suggests that Frege’s distinction between meaning and reference could further elucidate the discussion. The conclusion posits that while Ibn Sīnā’s arguments for God’s existence exhibit significant persuasive power, they also prompt further inquiries into divine simplicity and modal collapse. The exploration of these themes underscores the relevance of Ibn Sīnā’s metaphysical contributions to contemporary philosophical debates, advocating for a nuanced understanding of his work beyond traditional Aristotelian or Cartesian interpretations. (shrink)

Spontaneous collapse models (SCM) employ an imaginary noise term in the modification of Schrödinger’s equation in order to achieve a stochastic collapse process. Such noise term is typically assumed to be white, and therefore uncorrelated in time, which results in the dynamics being Markovian. In the first part of this paper I discuss the reasons why physicists are exploring the possibility to instead employ non-white stochastic noise terms in the dynamics of SCM, and I then briefly introduce these (...) models. In the second part, my aim is to provide an evaluation of the major conceptual and philosophical consequences of the generalised collapse models with colored noise. In particular, I will focus on the broad class of implications having to do with the non-Markovian nature of the dynamics, with its resulting temporal non-locality, and on the possibility to consider the noise field as a real physical entity. (shrink)

The standard response to self-referential failure is substitution: replacing the problem-generating element with an innocuous proxy. Tarski and Russell index the proxy to a level; an act that dissolves its own conditions indexes it to a time. Both succeed, and both change the subject. This paper identifies when no proxy is available. Treated not as a truth-functional connective but as a target-directed act, negation requires three conditions: discriminability, directionality, and operability — the applicability domain D. A negation of D that (...) exempts its own performance targets an indexed proxy, not D. A negation of D as such is reflexively inclusive, and operational collapse follows: it requires D operative in the very act whose constituted effect is D's inoperativeness. The failure precludes the act's initiation rather than spoiling its output, and marks the limit of substitution: any system in which negation operates retains an ineliminable structural invariant. The Liar cannot be targeted by negation at all — a failure prior to the point where Kripke's construction and bilateralist treatments of denial engage it — and the account is answerable for two discriminations neither delivers: the Liar can be affirmed though it cannot be negated, and the Truth-Teller, ungrounded alongside it, can be negated. (shrink)

The perplexing relationship between consciousness and quantum mechanics remains one of science's greatest enigmas. The "wavefunction collapse" phenomenon, where a quantum system's superposition of possibilities resolves into a single definite state upon measurement, has ignited heated debates about the role of consciousness in shaping reality. This article delves into the heart of this "quantum quagmire," exploring various interpretations of wavefunction collapse and their implications for the nature of consciousness and the observer-observed relationship.

Previous work has shown that spontaneous collapse of Fock states of identical fermions can be modeled as arising from random Rabi oscillations between two states. In this paper, a mathematical formalism is presented to incorporate this into many-body quantum field theory. This formalism allows for nonlocal collapse in the context of a relativistic system. While there is no absolute time-ordering of events, this approach allows for a coherent narrative of the collapse process.

As society increasingly relies on Large Language Models (LLMs) for decision-making, communication, and knowledge access, a structural shift in the human judgement process is unfolding. This paper draws on the Judgemental Triad theory to argue that the rise of LLMs is catalyzing a collapse of resonance—the essential self-returning dimension of meaningful judgement. We demonstrate how everyday patterns of interaction with AI systems are eroding constructibility, coherence, and especially resonance. Rather than opposing technological tools, we advocate for an awareness of (...) this collapse and propose structural criteria to safeguard judgement in a post-resonant cognitive environment. (shrink)

The most serious objection to Beall and Restall’s case-based logical pluralism is the so-called collapse argument. According to the collapse argument, logical pluralism is not genuinely pluralistic and collapses into a single privileged relation of logical consequence. In response, Caret offered an account of logical contextualism that supposedly maintains the merits of Beall and Restall’s case-based logical pluralism while circumventing the collapse argument. In this paper, I first point out a gap in the collapse argument in (...) that it does not affect pluralists who assume that there is no uniquely strongest admissible consequence relation. This gap, then, is closed by an improved version of the collapse argument, which makes use of Eklund’s classification of types of pluralism. Finally, I discuss how Caret’s logical contextualism cannot hold up against this new formulation of the collapse argument unless implausible assumptions about the contents of normative operators are made. Moreover, by reformulating the collapse argument, I determine the extent to which logical monism and pluralism oppose each other, paving the way for fruitful future discussion. (shrink)

The new lesson for banking sector came on March 10th 2023, when the bank, which had $212bn of assets, failed with spectacular speed, making it the biggest lender to collapse since the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. By loading up on long-term bonds, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had taken an enormous unhedged bet on interest rates staying low. That bet went wrong, leaving the bank insolvent. The analysis of selected reports, data in conjunction with the analysis of financial documents (...) are to indicate the areas of threats related to the privileged treatment of government bonds in banks’ balance statements. As a result of the analysis, the negative consequences of the accumulation of government bonds in banks’ balance sheets and their preferential treatment as zero-riskand background of series of events unfavorable for the bank were indicated. The collapse has been presented as an example of a misguided strategy. The new reality teaches that safe securities, such as government bonds, can no longer be considered as safe. The result of the analysis is to show the possibility of the prediction of not enough liquid assets to satisfy deposit withdrawals and confluence of events caused higher risk. (shrink)

I critically examine the claim that modal collapse arguments against the traditional doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) are in general fallacious. In a recent paper, Christopher Tomaszewski alleges that modal collapse arguments against DDS are invalid, owing to illicit substitutions of nonrigid singular terms into intensional contexts. I show that this is not, in general, the case. I show, further, that where existing modal collapse arguments are vulnerable to this charge the arguments can be repaired without any (...) apparent dialectical impropriety. I conclude that the genuine debate over modal collapse and divine simplicity and modal collapse is substantially a controversy over the metaphysics of divine action, and that this constitutes a fruitful direction in which to take future discussions of the subject. (shrink)

When a quantum system is macroscopic and becomes entangled with a microscopic one, entanglement is not immediately total, but gradual and local. A study of this locality is the starting point of the present work and shows unexpected and detailed properties in the generation and propagation of entanglement between a measuring apparatus and a microscopic measured system. Of special importance is the propagation of entanglement in nonlinear waves with a finite velocity. When applied to the entanglement between a macroscopic system (...) and its environment, this study yields also new results about the resulting disordered state. Finally, a mechanism of wave function collapse is proposed as an effect of perturbation in the growth of local entanglement between a measuring system and the measured one by waves of entanglement with the environment. (shrink)

As life on Earth becomes increasingly precarious, it becomes ever clearer that, while some nonhuman losses are perceived as tragic and controversial, many more are left to slip away, unnoticed and unmourned. The purpose of this study, then, is to determine what renders a nonhuman animal life as significant and why. Specifically, the story of colony collapse disorder is traced, illustrating how the loss of honeybees became framed as an ecological whodunit. This framing incited widespread interest in and anxiety (...) about the disappearance of honeybees. Moreover, the controversy surrounding colony collapse disorder encouraged the preemptive mourning of honeybees’ extinction, a fact which has consequently increased their chances of survival. Therefore, I argue that the stories told about nonhuman animals have influence. This article contributes to literature that recognizes extinction as a distinctly biocultural process, shaped as much by cultural values as it is by scientific fact. (shrink)

We considered peculiarities of the evolution of a region with sharp boundaries that is filled with a partially ionized plasma and is a part of the volume of a condensed target. The creation of such a region in the near-surface layer of the target can be related to the action of an external impulse symmetric ionizator or to the action of an intense small-extension shock wave on the target surface. We defined the conditions such that their fulfilment during the establishment (...) of the equilibrium between the Coulomb attraction of electrons and ions with atom ionization multiplicity Z* 1 and the kinetic pressure of electrons causes both the compression of this region and its ionization to the state with Z* 2 > Z* 1. The last leads to a further additional compression and ionization. Under these conditions, the spontaneous avalanche-like ionization of atoms of the target to the state of ‘‘bare’’ nuclei occurs synchronously with the avalanche-like metallization and the self-compression of the target. We showed that the avalanche-like ionization and the self-compression of the target happen in the case where the gas of degenerate electrons has drift momentum. If the region with initial ionization has the form of thin spherical layer, the process of avalanche-like ionization and self-compression of the target in this region is accompanied by the accelerated movement of the plasma layer to the target center. One of the reasons for the accelerated movement is the surface tension in a bounded domain of the nonequilibrium plasma layer neutralized by ions of the target. With increase in the velocity of movement of this layer to the target center, the additional self-compression of the system of electrons and nuclei to the state of degenerate electron gas occurs. At the leading edge of the running layer with extremely high electron density which is neutralized by nuclei of the target, the formation of a collapse of the electron--nucleus system proceeds, and the binding energy maximum for the electron--nucleus system shifts from A≈60 to A ≫ 60. This result makes possible the fast synthesis of superheavy nuclei. The decay of the collapse state, a partial restoration of the target structure, its rapid cooling, and the condensation of a part of the products of nuclear reactions happen in the target volume at the trailing edge of the moving plasma layer. Upon such a scanning propagation of the wave with high electron density, all the target substance is involved, step-by-step, to the process of nuclear transformations. At the target center, the moving plasma layer is squeezed with the formation of the state of quasistationary collapse under inertial confinement. Then the collapse state decays irreversibly. (shrink)

With the advent of social media and increase in networked publics, context collapse has emerged as a critical topic in the discussion of imagined audiences and blurring of the private and the public. The meshing of social contexts portends problematic issues as messages inadvertently reach unimagined audiences causing shame and leading to loss of ‘face’. In this article, we specifically study the impact of context collapse on some celebrities ‘who had it all’ yet, lost ‘it some’ to the (...) world of networked public. The article examines celebrities sharing identity information across multiple contexts and explores situations of lost fame when ‘face’ is threatened, usage falters and breaks some of the well-established norms of interactivity. It concludes that lack of prudence in separating social contexts, loss of ‘face’ and social approval can dampen online celebrity presence. It proposes the use of ‘polysemy’ to simultaneously appeal to audiences from different contexts. (shrink)

Wavefunction collapse models modify Schrödinger's equation so that it describes the rapid evolution of a superposition of macroscopically distinguishable states to one of them. This provides a phenomenological basis for a physical resolution to the so-called “measurement problem.” Such models have experimentally testable differences from standard quantum theory. The most well developed such model at present is the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) model in which a universal fluctuating classical field interacts with particles to cause collapse. One “side effect” (...) of this interaction is that the field imparts energy to the particles: experimental evidence on this has led to restrictions on the parameters of the model, suggesting that the coupling of the classical field to the particles must be mass-proportional. Another “side effect” is that the field imparts momentum to particles, causing a small blob of matter to undergo random walk. Here we explore this in order to supply predictions which could be experimentally tested. We examine the translational diffusion of a sphere and a disc, and the rotational diffusion of a disc, according to CSL. For example, we find that the rms distance an isolated 10−5 cm radius sphere diffuses is ≈(its diameter, 5 cm) in (20 sec, a day), and that a disc of radius 2 ⋅ 10−5 cm and thickness 0.5 ⋅ 10−5 cm diffuses through 2πrad in about 70 sec (this assumes the “standard” CSL parameter values). The comparable rms diffusions of standard quantum theory are smaller than these by a factor 10−3±1. It is shown that the CSL diffusion in air at STP is much reduced and, indeed, is swamped by the ordinary Brownian motion. It is also shown that the sphere's diffusion in a thermal radiation bath at room temperature is comparable to the CSL diffusion, but is utterly negligible at liquid He temperature. Thus, in order to observe CSL diffusion, the pressure and temperature must be low. At the low reported pressure of 5 ⋅ 10−17 Torr, achieved at 4.2°K, the mean time between air molecule collisions with the (sphere, disc) is ≈(80, 45)min. This is ample time for observation of the putative CSL diffusion with the standard parameters and, it is pointed out, with any parameters in the range over which the theory may be considered viable. This encourages consideration of how such an experiment may actually be performed, and the paper closes with some thoughts on this subject. (shrink)

This paper investigates a structural paradox of modern capitalism: the more profit-driven a system becomes, the more it incentivizes the destruction of human judgement. Drawing on the Judgemental Triad theory, we argue that consumer resonance—defined as the return of meaning through evaluative engagement—is actively dismantled by economic designs favoring automation, impulsivity, and externalized cognition. This collapse of resonance leads to increased consumption and short-term gains, but at the cost of long-term meaning, autonomy, and human well-being. We propose a framework (...) for judgementally-structured economies that preserve constructibility, coherence, and resonance in consumption, offering a foundation for ethical, sustainable, and structurally human capitalism. (shrink)

Collapse models predict the spontaneous collapse of the wave function, in order to avoid the emergence of macroscopic superpositions. In their mass-dependent formulation, they claim that the collapse of any system’s wave function depends on its mass. Neutral K, D, B mesons are oscillating systems that are given by Nature as superposition of two distinct mass eigenstates. Thus they are unique laboratory for testing collapse models that are sensitive to the mass. In this paper we derive—for (...) the single mesons and bipartite entangled mesons—the effect of the mass-proportional CSL (Continuous Spontaneous Localization) collapse model on the dynamics on neutral mesons. We compare the theoretical prediction with experimental data from different accelerator facilities. (shrink)

Why do societies collapse? We use an individual-based evolutionary model to show that, in environmental conditions dominated by low-frequency variation (“red noise”), extirpation may be an outcome of the evolution of cultural capacity. Previous analytical models predicted an equilibrium between individual learners and social learners, or a contingent strategy in which individuals learn socially or individually depending on the circumstances. However, in red noise environments, whose main signature is that variation is concentrated in relatively large, relatively rare excursions, individual (...) learning may be selected from the population. If the social learning system comes to lack sufficient individual learning or cognitively costly adaptive biases, behavior ceases tracking environmental variation. Then, when the environment does change, fitness declines and the population may collapse or even be extirpated. The modeled scenario broadly fits some human population collapses and might also explain nonhuman extirpations. Varying model parameters showed that the fixation of social learning is less likely when individual learning is less costly, when the environment is less red or more variable, with larger population sizes, and when learning is not conformist or is from parents rather than from the general population. Once social learning is fixed, extirpation is likely except when social learning is biased towards successful models. Thus, the risk of population collapse may be reduced by promoting individual learning and innovation over cultural conformity, or by preferential selection of relatively fit individuals as models for social learning. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

After introductory reminder of and comments on Gödel’s ontological proof, we discuss the collapse of modalities, which is provable in Gödel’s ontological system GO. We argue that Gödel’s texts confirm modal collapse as intended consequence of his ontological system. Further, we aim to show that modal collapse properly fits into Gödel’s philosophical views, especially into his ontology of separation and union of force and fact, as well as into his cosmological theory of the nonobjectivity of the lapse (...) of time. As a result, modal collapse should not be conceived in Gödel so much as a deficit, but rather as a kind of the rise of modalities to the “perfect” being. We further show that, in accordance with Gödel’s ontology, the concepts of modality and time should be derived in terms of the “fundamental philosophical concept” of cause. To give an example of how a formalization of such causative Gödelian ontology and ontological proof might look, we propose the transformation of GO into a kind of causally re-interpreted justification logic. (shrink)

Compassion collapse is a phenomenon where feelings and helping behavior decrease as the number of needy increases. But what are the underlying mechanisms for compassion collapse? Previous research has attempted to pit two explanations: Limitations of the feeling system vs. motivated down-regulation of emotion, against each other. In this article, we critically reexamine a previous study comparing these two accounts published in 2011 and present new data that contest motivated down-regulation of emotion as the primary explanation for compassion (...) collapse. (shrink)

We prove that in IST, Nelson's internal set theory, the Uniqueness and Collection principles, hold for all (including external) formulas. A corollary of the Collection theorem shows that in IST there are no definable mappings of a set X onto a set Y of greater (not equal) cardinality unless both sets are finite and #(Y) ≤ n #(X) for some standard n. Proofs are based on a rather general technique which may be applied to other nonstandard structures. In particular we (...) prove that in a nonstandard model of PA, Peano arithmetic, every hyperinteger uniquely definable by a formula of the PA language extended by the predicate of standardness, can be defined also by a pure PA formula. (shrink)

According to the logical pluralism of Beall and Restall, there are several distinct relations of logical consequence. Some critics argue that logical pluralism suffers from what I call the collapse problem: that despite its intention to articulate a radically pluralistic doctrine about logic, the view unintentionally collapses into logical monism. In this paper, I propose a contextualist resolution of the collapse problem. This clarifies the mechanism responsible for a plurality of logics and handles the motivating data better than (...) the original view. It is a major improvement that should be embraced by all logical pluralists. (shrink)

It is emphasized that the collapse postulate of standard quantum theory can violate conservation of energy-momentum and there is no indication from where the energy-momentum comes or to where it goes. Likewise, in the Continuous Spontaneous Localization (CSL) dynamical collapse model, particles gain energy on average. In CSL, the usual Schrödinger dynamics is altered so that a randomly fluctuating classical field interacts with quantized particles to cause wavefunction collapse. In this paper it is shown how to define (...) energy for the classical field so that the average value of the energy of the field plus the quantum system is conserved for the ensemble of collapsing wavefunctions. While conservation of just the first moment of energy is, of course, much less than complete conservation of energy, this does support the idea that the field could provide the conservation law balance when events occur. (shrink)

It is commonplace today to hear climate change identified as the single most important challenge facing humanity. Consider the headlines from COP24, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Poland in December 2018. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres opened the proceedings by calling climate change “the most important issue we face” (PBS 2018). The Secretary-General’s remarks paraphrase the opening line of the U.N.’s climate change web page, which announces that “[c]limate Change is the defining issue of our time and we (...) are at a defining moment” (United Nations n.d.). Such statements about the singular significance of climate change—the most important, the defining issue—are often followed by proclamations about what hangs in the balance, and this was the case at COP24. There, the celebrated British naturalist Sir David Attenborough warned that “collapse of our civilizations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizons,” amounting to, in his words, “disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years” (PBS 2018). (shrink)

This paper argues that contemporary political systems are experiencing not merely ideological crises, but a deeper structural collapse of judgement. Using the Judgemental Triad—Constructivity, Coherence, and Resonance—we evaluate whether modern institutions still enable meaningful political judgement. We find that while constructibility may persist through formal procedures, coherence is increasingly fragmented and resonance has eroded under digital fragmentation, public cynicism, and institutional opacity. As a result, political decisions are made in a structurally unjudgeable environment, reducing politics to performance and policy (...) to inertia. We propose a structural reconstitution of political systems grounded in resonance repair. (shrink)

This paper proposes a structural theory of depression rooted in Judgemental Philosophy. Rather than defining depression solely through affective or biochemical terms, we argue that it entails a collapse in the very structure of judgement—specifically the breakdown of resonance. Drawing from the Judgemental Triad, we reinterpret depressive experience as the inability to form, sustain, and receive meaning from one’s own evaluations. Depression is not merely sadness or demotivation; it is a structural disconnection from meaning. We then explore how therapeutic (...) approaches that re-establish resonance loops can serve as philosophical foundations for recovery, moving beyond symptom relief toward structural reconstitution. (shrink)

Jakob von Uexküll’s umwelt theory opens new perspectives for understanding animal extinction. The umwelt is interpreted here as a sum of structural correspondences between an animal’s subjective experience, ecosystem, physiology, and behaviour. The global environmental crisis disturbs these meaning-connections. From the umwelt perspective, we may describe extinction as umwelt collapse: The disintegration of an animal’s umwelt resulting from the cumulative errors in semiotic processes that mediate an organism and ecosystem. The loss of umwelt-ecosystem integration disturbs “ecological memory,” which provides (...) the ecosystem with adaptive modelling and self-design capacities. Making a distinction between core and mediated umwelts, and describing different types of umwelt collapse, are suitable methods for more detailed analysis. The concept of umwelt collapse enables the reinterpretation of extinction, from an internal perspective, as a semiotic breakdown. Such an approach may help us map scenarios of animal extinction, and may lead to successful compensation strategies in adapting to environmental change. (shrink)

Quantum mechanics, with its revolutionary implications, has posed innumerable problems to philosophers of science. In particular, it has suggested reconsidering basic concepts such as the existence of a world that is, at least to some extent, independent of the observer, the possibility of getting reliable and objective knowledge about it, and the possibility of taking (under appropriate circumstances) certain properties to be objectively possessed by physical systems. It has also raised many others questions which are well known to those involved (...) in the debate on the interpretation of this pillar of modern science. One can argue that most of the problems are not only due to the intrinsic revolutionary nature of the phenomena which have led to the development of the theory. They are also related to the fact that, in its standard formulation and interpretation, quantum mechanics is a theory which is excellent (in fact it has met with a success unprecedented in the history of science) in telling us everything about what we observe, but it meets with serious difficulties in telling us what is. We are making here specific reference to the central problem of the theory, usually referred to as the measurement problem, or, with a more appropriate term, as the macro-objectification problem. It is just one of the many attempts to overcome the difficulties posed by this problem that has led to the development of Collapse Theories, i.e., to the Dynamical Reduction Program (DRP). As we shall see, this approach consists in accepting that the dynamical equation of the standard theory should be modified by the addition of stochastic and nonlinear terms. The nice fact is that the resulting theory is capable, on the basis of a unique dynamics which is assumed to govern all natural processes, to account at the same time for all well-established.. (shrink)