Chiara Marletto
Chiara Marletto is a Research Fellow working at the Physics Department, University of Oxford. Within Wolfson, she is an active member of the Quantum Cluster and of the New Frontiers Quantum Hub. Her research is in theoretical physics, with special emphasis on Quantum Theory of Computation, Information Theory, Thermodynamics, Condensed-Matter Physics and Quantum Biology. Some of her recent research has harnessed a recently proposed generalisation of the quantum theory of information - Constructor Theory — to address issues at the foundations of the theory of control and causation in physics. These include applications to defining general principles encompassing classical, quantum and post-quantum theories of information; and to assessing the compatibility of essential features of living systems, such as the ability to self-reproduce and evolve, with fundamental laws of Physics, in particular with Quantum Physics. They also include the definition of a new class of witnesses of non-classicality in systems that need not obey quantum theory, such as gravity; and a scale-independent definition of irreversibility, work and heat, based on constructor-theoretic ideas.
3 Books Written
The Science of Can and Can't: A Physicist's Journey through the Land of Counterfactuals
by Chiara Marletto
Rating: 3.8 ⭐
• 3 recommendations ❤️
From a young British scientist, a groundbreaking exploration of a radically different approach to physics There is a vast class of things that science has so far almost entirely neglected. They are central to the understanding of physical reality both at an everyday level and at the level of the most fundamental phenomena in physics, yet have traditionally been assumed to be impossible to incorporate into fundamental scientific explanations. They are facts not about what is (the actual) but about what could be (counterfactuals).According to physicist Chiara Marletto, laws about things being possible or impossible may generate an alternative way of providing explanations. This fascinating, far-reaching approach holds promise for revolutionizing the way fundamental physics is formulated and for providing essential tools to face existing technological challenges--from delivering the next generation of information-processing devices beyond the universal quantum computer to designing AIs. Each chapter in the book delineates how an existing vexed open problem in science can be solved by this radically different approach and it is augmented by short fictional stories that explicate the main point of the chapter. As Marletto demonstrates, contemplating what is possible can give us a more complete and hopeful picture of the physical world.
Hay una gran cantidad de cosas que la ciencia ha ignorado hasta ahora casi por completo. Son fundamentales para comprender la realidad física, tanto a nivel cotidiano como a nivel de los fenómenos más fundamentales de la física, y sin embargo tradicionalmente se ha supuesto que era imposible incorporarlas a las explicaciones científicas fundamentales. No son hechos sobre lo que es (lo real), sino sobre lo que podría ser (contrafácticos).Según la física Chiara Marletto, las leyes sobre cosas posibles o imposibles pueden generar una forma alternativa de dar explicaciones. Este planteamiento fascinante y de gran alcance promete revolucionar la forma de formular la física fundamental y proporcionar herramientas esenciales para afrontar los retos tecnológicos desde el desarrollo de la próxima generación de dispositivos de procesamiento de la información, más allá del ordenador cuántico universal, hasta el diseño de la inteligencia artificial. En cada capítulo del libro se explica cómo este planteamiento radicalmente distinto puede resolver un problema abierto y controvertido de la ciencia, y se complementa con breves relatos de ficción que explican el tema principal del capítulo. Como demuestra Marletto, contemplar lo que es posible puede darnos una imagen más completa y esperanzadora del mundo físico.
