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Pavel Chvykov
Jul 14 min read
Honest science is spirituality
I see a problem with current science. It’s not the reproducibility crisis, nor the toxic work culture, nor the misaligned incentive. But...
49 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Feb 711 min read
Quantum Darwinism, social constructs, and the scientific method
We live in a "consensus reality" – where reproducibility, or redundancy of consistent records, is what makes something "objectively true." B
82 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Jan 224 min read
Values Darwinism
TL;DR / summary: Can we objectively define "progress"? A Darwinian definition seems plausible. But when referring to cultures,...
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Pavel Chvykov
Jan 9, 20234 min read
Against the Paradox of Tolerance
The Paradox of Tolerance argues that an absolutely tolerant society cannot exist. I don't like that. Here I'm proposing one way around it -
139 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Jun 28, 202218 min read
A physicist's approach to Origins of Life
I spent the 6 years in my Ph.D. thinking of the broad topic of origins of life, or “abiogenesis”: how does non-living matter turn into...
302 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Mar 26, 20223 min read
Magic, tricks, and high-dimensional configuration spaces
What is a magic trick? Any complex system, such as our world, may be described in terms of its numerous degrees of freedom, each...
21 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Jan 30, 20223 min read
Understanding the whole without the parts?
“I’m a physicist, I have a working knowledge of the entire universe and everything it contains” –Sheldon, “The Big Bang Theory” While...
90 views0 comments
Pavel Chvykov
Jan 13, 20222 min read
Doing “good”
I just did my first substantial donation (informed by Effective Altruism, and my own work on complex social systems). Even though I have...
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Pavel Chvykov
May 14, 20212 min read
Does butterfly affect?
Can a butterfly really cause a hurricane? Having been working in complexity science, I realize that I have a problem with the...
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Pavel Chvykov
Mar 12, 20213 min read
Is social theory our doom?
Complexity science, and especially the dream to deeply understand social systems and build concrete predictive models (such as Asimov’s...
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Pavel Chvykov
Jan 28, 20213 min read
In search of Truth
Is there one true way to understand a tree? Well, of course there is — talk to any scientist! A physicist will tell you that it’s a...
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Pavel Chvykov
Jan 13, 20212 min read
Designing environments to select designs
In the last few posts we reasoned that “growing cars” would mean somehow creating them without a human planning out all the details of...
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