Sally Shrapnel (UQ): Do Quantum Causal Models Explain Bell Violations?
Seminar
Quantum correlations that violate Bell inequalities seem to defy causal explanation: counterfactual accounts fall foul of relativity and probabilistic accounts violate Reichenbach’s principle. In this talk, I will present an interventionist account of causation that seeks to explain not only Bell…
Special Session
Seminar
Special Session speakers Donald Nordblom, Daniel Kilov, and James Willoughby.
Kate Devitt (QUT): The Liability of Uncertainty: How mistrust in Agricultural Decision Support Technologies thwarts adoption
Other
Decision Support Systems (DSS) are increasingly touted as a means to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural enterprise from variable yield mapping for nutritional inputs to autonomous irrigation scheduling. However, due to the complexity of variables and uncertainties, the…
Peter Evans: "What can bouncing oil droplets tell us about quantum mechanics?"
Seminar
A recent series of experiments from a team in Paris have demonstrated that an oil droplet bouncing on a vibrating fluid surface displays behaviour that is typically considered to be quantum behaviour. The suggestion has been made that this fluid mechanical system provides a single particle…
Lachlan Umbers, Compulsory Voting: A Defence
Seminar
Turnout is in decline in established democracies around the world. Where, in the mid-1800s, 70%- 80% of eligible voters regularly participated in US Presidential elections, turnout has averaged just 56% since 1972. Average turnout in general elections in the UK has fallen from 76.64% during the…
Iddo Porat: Ritual Animal Slaughter, Circumcision and the Right not to be Singled Out
Other
Advocates of banning ritual male circumcision argue that circumcision amounts to an irreversible mutilation, causes medical harm (such as reduction of sexual pleasure) and pain, and forecloses future choices of the child without his consent. Opponents argue that such harms are exaggerated, and…
James Owen Weatherall: How to Beat Science and Influence People
Seminar
In their recent book Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury, 2010), Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway describe what they call the "Tobacco Strategy", which was the strategy used by the tobacco industry to influence policy makers regarding the health risks of tobacco products. The strategy involves two…