Emily Adlam on `Contextuality, Fine-tuning and Teleological Explanation'

In this talk I will assess various proposals for the source of the intuition that there is something problematic about contextuality, and argue that contextuality is best thought of in terms of fine-tuning. I will suggest that as with other fine-tuning problems in quantum mechanics, this behaviour can be understood as a manifestation of teleological features of physics. I will also introduce several formal mathematical frameworks that have been used to analyse contextuality and discuss how their results should be interpreted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For announcements of upcoming seminars you can visit http://www.qiss.fr/virtual-seminars.html or join our mailing list through https://groups.google.com/forum/#!for.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About QISS The Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime (http://www.qiss.fr) is an interdisciplinary research initiative among several universities and research institutes all over the world, supported by the John Templeton Foundation through the grant https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-q... , coordinated from The Samy Maroun Center for Space, Time and the Quantum (http://www.spacetimeandquantum.com). The goal of QISS is to explore and connect the research domains of Quantum Information/Computing, Quantum Gravity and Quantum Foundations. Main objectives are to found the physics of quantum spacetime on an information-theoretic basis, to bring within reach empirical access to quantum gravity in 'table-top' laboratory conditions by exploiting rapid advances in quantum computing related technologies and using quantum information theoretic concepts, and to promote an extensive interaction between physicists and philosophers on the conceptual role of information in spacetime physics.