Paper I — General
30 QUESTIONS
-
1.
Is the genome a program?
-
2.
What distinguishes a law of nature from an accidental regularity?
-
3.
Is mathematics discovered or constructed? Answer without appeal to authority.
-
4.
When, if ever, is a computer simulation an experiment?
-
5.
Does reduction explain, or only redescribe?
-
6.
What would it take to show that a phenomenon is emergent rather than merely complicated?
-
7.
Is there a fact of the matter about the arrow of time?
-
8.
Why is the universe amenable to mathematics at all?
-
9.
Can a measurement have no observer?
-
10.
What is the smallest amount of evidence that would rationally overturn a well-confirmed theory?
-
11.
Is information physical?
-
12.
Distinguish randomness from ignorance.
-
13.
Could two theories be empirically equivalent yet not the same theory?
-
14.
Is life a physical kind or a historical accident?
-
15.
What does it mean to say a constant is "fine-tuned"?
-
16.
Can a proof be too long to be a proof?
-
17.
Is temperature real?
-
18.
Why should the simpler hypothesis be preferred? Give a non-circular answer.
-
19.
Does biology have laws?
-
20.
What is conserved when energy is conserved?
-
21.
Is the periodic table a discovery about chemistry or about physics?
-
22.
Can a scientific model be true?
-
23.
What is the difference between a symmetry and a redundancy in description?
-
24.
Would a complete physics of the brain leave anything unexplained?
-
25.
Is there a principled boundary between chemistry and physics?
-
26.
When does a correlation license an intervention?
-
27.
Is the concept of species dispensable?
-
28.
Can the second law of thermodynamics be derived, or must it be assumed?
-
29.
What, precisely, does a probability in physics measure?
-
30.
If you could establish exactly one currently open scientific question, which would most change the rest of science, and why?