A Computable Universe

Understanding and Exploring Nature as Computation

• Author(s): Hector Zenil,
• Publisher: World Scientific
• Pages: 810
• ISBN_10: 9814374296
  ISBN_13: 9789814374293
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Computers / Computer Science , Computers / Information Theory , Computers / Information Technology , Mathematics / Applied , Mathematics / Differential Equations / General , Mathematics / Logic , Mathematics / Mathematical Analysis , Science / Life Sciences / Biology , Science / Physics / Mathematical & Computational ,

Description:... This volume, with a foreword by Sir Roger Penrose, discusses the foundations of computation in relation to nature.It focuses on two main questions:• What is computation?• How does nature compute?The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and philosophical implications.The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays, representing a field that assumes information and computation to be key in understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's "Calculating Space" (the MIT translation), and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity.The volume is dedicated to the memory of Alan M Turing — the inventor of universal computation, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and is part of the Turing Centenary celebrations.