Counting Steps: a Finitist Interpretation of Objective Probability in Physics

Epistemologia 37 (2):262-275 (2015)
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Abstract

We propose a new interpretation of objective deterministic chances in statistical physics based on physical computational complexity. This notion applies to a single physical system (be it an experimental set--up in the lab, or a subsystem of the universe), and quantifies (1) the difficulty to realize a physical state given another, (2) the 'distance' (in terms of physical resources) from a physical state to another, and (3) the size of the set of time--complexity functions that are compatible with the physical resources required to reach a physical state from another.

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Amit Hagar
Indiana University, Bloomington

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References found in this work

Time and chance.David Z. Albert - 2000 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Time and Chance.S. French - 2005 - Mind 114 (453):113-116.
Subjective probabilityand statistical physics.Jos Uffink - 2011 - In Claus Beisbart & Stephan Hartmann (eds.), Probabilities in Physics. Oxford University Press. pp. 25.
Finitism in geometry.Jean-Paul Van Bendegem - 2002 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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