Anthropic Bias Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy [Paperback]

Anthropic Biasexplores how to reason when you suspect that your evidence is biased by observation selection effects --that is, evidence that has been filtered by the precondition that there be some suitably positioned observer to have the evidence. This conundrum--sometimes alluded to as the anthropic principle, self-locating belief, or indexical information --turns out to be a surprisingly perplexing and intellectually stimulating challenge, one abounding with important implications for many areas in science and philosophy.

There are the philosophical thought experiments and paradoxes: the Doomsday Argument; Sleeping Beauty; the Presumptuous Philosopher; Adam & Eve; the Absent-Minded Driver; the Shooting Room.

And there are the applications in contemporary science: cosmology ( How many universes are there? , Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? ); evolutionary theory ( How improbable was the evolution of intelligent life on our planet? ); the problem of time's arrow ( Can it be given a thermodynamic explanation? ); quantum physics ( How can the many-worlds theory be tested? ); game-theory problems with imperfect recall ( How to model them? ); even traffic analysis ( Why is the 'next lane' faster? ).

Anthropic Biasargues that the same principles are at work across all these domains. And it offers a synthesis: a mathematically explicit theory of observation selection effects that attempts to meet scientific needs while steering clear of philosophical paradox.

From traffic analysis via a many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the problem of the fine-tuning of the universe to the purely philosophical problems of the Doomsday argument and the Sleeping Beauty problem, Bostrom succeeds in shining a new and interesting light on all of these issues. --Wouter Meijs

Bostrom presents a highly readable and widely relevant work which can lÃ;