The Nature of Physical Computation
Series: Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Science;
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 29 April 2022
- ISBN 9780197552384
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages320 pages
- Size 165x251x30 mm
- Weight 612 g
- Language English 264
Categories
Short description:
What does it mean to say that an object or system computes? What is it about laptops, smartphones, and nervous systems that they are considered to compute, and why does it seldom occur to us to describe stomachs, hurricanes, rocks, or chairs that way? Though computing systems are everywhere today, it is very difficult to answer these questions. The book aims to shed light on the subject by arguing for the semantic view of computation, which states that computing systems are always accompanied by representations. This view is presented as an alternative to non-semantic views such as the mechanistic account of computation.
MoreLong description:
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.
Computing systems are ubiquitous in contemporary life. Even the brain is thought to be a computing system of sorts. But what does it mean to say that an organ or a system computes? What is it about laptops, smartphones, and nervous systems that they are deemed to compute?and why does it seldom occur to us to describe stomachs, hurricanes, rocks, or chairs that way? These questions are key to the conceptual foundations of computational sciences, including computer science and engineering, and the cognitive and neural sciences.
Oron Shagrir here provides an extended argument for the semantic view of computation, which states that semantic properties are involved in the nature of computing systems. The first part of the book provides general background. Although different in scope, these chapters have a common theme?that the linkage between the mathematical theory of computability and the notion of physical computation is weak. The second part of the book reviews existing non-semantic accounts of physical computation. Shagrir offers an in-depth analysis of three influential accounts, and argues that none of these accounts is satisfactory, but each of them highlights certain key features of physical computation that he eventually entwines into his own account of computation. The last part of the book presents and defends an original semantic account of physical computation, with a phenomenon known as 'simultaneous implementation' (or 'indeterminacy of computation') at its core.
Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Desiderata of a theory of computation
Chapter 2: Turing's computability
Chapter 3: Preamble to machine computation
Chapter 4: Computation as step satisfaction
Chapter 5: Computation as implementation
Chapter 6: Computation as mechanism
Chapter 7: The semantic view of computation
Chapter 8: An argument for the semantic view
Chapter 9: Computing as modeling
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
