A Computable Universe: Understanding and Exploring Nature as Computation

by Hector Zenil (Editor)

This volume, with a foreword by Sir Roger Penrose, discusses the foundations of computation in relation to nature.It focuses on two main 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.

Genres: Computer Science, Physics

810 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2012

Reviews

[Brendan]

Read maybe half of this, in-between all the technical mathematics, to get a gist of what's being talked about, and it's a lot. There's a lot of ideas in this.