This article is about the interpretation of quantifiers in epistemic contexts, and the closely related notion of what it means for two objects in different possible worlds to be identical. I will give arguments for several claims. The first claim is that the definition of identity between objects across epistemically possible worlds as being given by the identity of those objects themselves lea...

Incorporating probabilities into the semantics of incomplete databases has posed many challenges, forcing systems to sacrifice modeling power, scalability, or treatment of relational algebra operators. We propose an alternative approach where the underlying relational database always represents a single world, and an external factor graph encodes a distribution over possible worlds; Markov chai...

Despite virtual characters from 3D videogames – also called bots – seem to be close relatives of intelligent software agents, the mechanisms of agent reasoning are only rarely applied in videogames. Why is this? One possible reason is the incompatibility between representations used by agent decision making systems (DMS) and videogame worlds, as well as different handling of these representatio...

Virtual Worlds are a popular medium for communication and collaboration in 3D and they are being utilized as shared information spaces in various application areas, such as education, culture and entertainment. Being presented as 3D visualization spaces they adopt a spatial model of navigation, in which information artifacts have a certain position in space and users can access them through the...

Recent research on online learning suggests that virtual worlds are becoming an important environment to observe the experience of flow. From these simulated spaces, researchers may gather a deeper understanding of cognition in the context of game-based learning. Csikszentmihalyi (1997) describes flow as a feeling of increased psychological immersion and energized focus, with outcomes that evok...

Games allow players to perceive themselves in alternate ways in imagined worlds. Player identification is one of the outcomes of gameplay experiences in these worlds and has been shown to affect enjoyment and reduce self-discrepancy. Avatar-based customization has potential to impact player identification by shaping the relationship between the player and the character. This mixed method study ...

This article, based on the Klein lecture, contains some new results and new speculations on various topics. They include discussion of open strings in the AdS space, unusual features of D-branes, conformal gauge theories in higher dimensions. We also comment on the infrared screening of the cosmological constant and on the ”brane worlds”

DISCLAIMER The Boeing Company has conducted a thorough review of, and submitted approval on, the content of the Everett and Auburn case studies included in Attachment A and Attachment B of this report, respectively. However, the findings articulated in the main body of this report represent Ross & Associates' interpretation of the Boeing case studies and do not necessarily represent the opinion...

The paper entitled \Against Many-Worlds Interpretations" by A. Kent, which has recently been submitted to the e-Print archive (gr-qc/9703089) contained some misconceptions. The claims on Everett's many-worlds interpretation are quoted and answered.