Chris Fields
Chris Fields | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Critique of quantum Darwinism, work on observers and system boundaries |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Foundations of physics, quantum theory, cognitive science |
Chris Fields is an independent researcher who publishes widely on the foundations of quantum theory, cognitive science and theoretical biology. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists, in the "Critics" category.
Work
Fields is cited for his paper "Classical system boundaries cannot be determined within quantum Darwinism" (Physics Essays 24: 518–522, 2011; also available as an arXiv preprint). In it he argues that observers who interact only with environmental encodings of a macroscopic quantum system's state cannot demonstrate that they are jointly observing the same system without an extra-theoretical, a priori assumption of a classical boundary separating system from environment. On this basis he contends that quantum Darwinism—the program associated with Wojciech Zurek that seeks to explain the emergence of classicality through redundant environmental encoding—cannot be regarded as a purely quantum-mechanical account of that emergence.
More broadly, Fields questions the assumption that quantum systems possess well-defined spatial boundaries at which decoherence acts, and he has written extensively on observers, information and the division of degrees of freedom into "system" and "environment." He maintains a personal site listing his publications, which range across quantum theory, metaphysics, consciousness and biology.