Related papers: Computocene: Notes from an Age of Observation
Learning to code, and more broadly, learning about computer science is a growing field of activity and research. Under the label of computational thinking, computational concepts are increasingly used as cognitive tools in many subject…
This paper reviews connections between physics and computation, and explores their implications. The main topics are computational "hardness" of physical systems, computational status of fundamental theories, quantum computation, and the…
This article reports on a study investigating how computational essays can be used to redistribute epistemic agency--cognitive control and responsibility over one's own learning--to students in higher education STEM. Computational essays…
Vision systems in nature show remarkable diversity, from simple light-sensitive patches to complex camera eyes with lenses. While natural selection has produced these eyes through countless mutations over millions of years, they represent…
The concept of 'undone science' emerged in the 2010s in research in social sciences at the intersection of studies on social movements and of science and technology studies. It refers to research questions that are neglected, ignored, or…
Many real-world dynamic systems, both natural and artificial, are understood to be performing computations. For artificial dynamic systems, explicitly designed to perform computation - such as digital computers - by construction, we can…
The nature of computation and its role in our lives have been transformed in the past two decades by three remarkable developments: the emergence of public cloud utilities as a new computing platform; the ability to extract information from…
Working with stories and working with computations require very different modes of thought. We call the first mode "story-thinking" and the second "computational-thinking". The aim of this curiosity-driven paper is to explore the nature of…
Memory is often defined as the mental capacity of retaining information about facts, events, procedures and more generally about any type of previous experience. Memories are remembered as long as they influence our thoughts, feelings, and…
Due to the self-referencing aspect, consciousness is placed in a unique non-computable position among natural phenomena. Non-computable consciousness was previously analyzed on the basis of self-referential cyclical time. This paper extends…
The ubiquitous presence of computer simulations in all kinds of research areas evidence their role as the new driving force for the advancement of science and engineering research. Nothing seems to escape the image of success that computer…
Evolution is one of the major omnipresent powers in the universe that has been studied for about two centuries. Recent scientific and technical developments make it possible to make the transition from passively understanding to actively…
Knowledge is the most precious asset of humankind. People extract the experience from the data that provide for us the reality through the feelings. Generally speaking, it is possible to see the analogy of knowledge elaboration between…
In the last few decades or so, we witness a paradigm shift in our nature studies - from a data-processing based computational approach to an information-processing based cognitive approach. The process is restricted and often misguided by…
The problem of replicating the flexibility of human common-sense reasoning has captured the imagination of computer scientists since the early days of Alan Turing's foundational work on computation and the philosophy of artificial…
Computational modeling is a critical tool for understanding consciousness, but is it enough on its own? This paper discusses the necessity for an ontological basis of consciousness, and introduces a formal framework for grounding…
Alan Turing's pioneering work on computability, and his ideas on morphological computing support Andrew Hodges' view of Turing as a natural philosopher. Turing's natural philosophy differs importantly from Galileo's view that the book of…
Abductive reasoning, reasoning for inferring explanations for observations, is often mentioned in scientific, design-related and artistic contexts, but its understanding varies across these domains. This paper reviews how abductive…
Quantum computing is a rapidly developing field in the second wave of quantum development, with the potential to revolutionize a wide range of industries and fields of study. As the capabilities of quantum computers continue to advance,…
This paper discusses the benefits of describing the world as information, especially in the study of the evolution of life and cognition. Traditional studies encounter problems because it is difficult to describe life and cognition in terms…