Related papers: Pancomputationalism: Theory or metaphor?
Historically, appearance of the quantum theory led to a prevailing view that Nature is indeterministic. The arguments for the indeterminism and proposals for indeterministic and deterministic approaches are reviewed. These include collapse…
LLMorphism is the biased belief that human cognition works like a large language model. I argue that the rise of conversational LLMs may make this bias increasingly psychologically available. When artificial systems produce human-like…
I am most honoured to have the privilege to present the Foreword to this fascinating and wonderfully varied collection of contributions, concerning the nature of computation and of its deep connection with the operation of those basic laws,…
Quantum-mechanical concepts can be formulated in constructive finite terms without loss of their empirical content if we replace a general unitary group by a unitary representation of a finite group. Any linear representation of a finite…
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…
Cosmological models that invoke a multiverse - a collection of unobservable regions of space where conditions are very different from the region around us - are controversial, on the grounds that unobservable phenomena shouldn't play a…
Models of computation operating over the real numbers and computing a larger class of functions compared to the class of general recursive functions invariably introduce a non-finite element of infinite information encoded in an arbitrary…
We argue that whether the universe is infinite or finite is less crucial than usually supposed. Paradoxes of repeating behaviour in the infinite, or eternal inflationary, universe can be alleviated by a realistic definition of differing…
The many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics (MWI) states that the world we live in is just one among many parallel worlds. It is widely believed that because of this commitment to parallel worlds, the MWI violates common sense. Some…
Quantum theory describes our universe incredibly successfully. To our classically-inclined brains, however, it is a bizarre description that requires a re-imagining of what fundamental reality, or "ontology", could look like. This thesis…
The generation of comprehensible explanations is an essential feature of modern artificial intelligence systems. In this work, we consider probabilistic logic programming, an extension of logic programming which can be useful to model…
We discuss an apparent information paradox that arises in a materialist's description of the Universe if we assume that the Universe is 100% quantum. We discuss possible ways out of the paradox, including that Laws of Nature are not purely…
The long lasting discussion on the completeness of quantum theory (QT) has not yet come to an end. The discussion is impeded by the lack of a clear understanding of what makes up the contents of a theory of physics in general and of QT…
Unlike computation or the numerical analysis of differential equations, simulation does not have a well established conceptual and mathematical foundation. Simulation is an arguable unique union of modeling and computation. However,…
This paper examines conceptual models and their application to computational thinking. Computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everybody, not just for computer scientists. It has been promoted as skills that are as fundamental for…
Topos theory, a branch of category theory, has been proposed as mathematical basis for the formulation of physical theories. In this article, we give a brief introduction to this approach, emphasising the logical aspects. Each topos serves…
We propose a definition of quantum computable functions as mappings between superpositions of natural numbers to probability distributions of natural numbers. Each function is obtained as a limit of an infinite computation of a quantum…
A model of knowledge representation is described in which propositional facts and the relationships among them can be supported by other facts. The set of knowledge which can be supported is called the set of cognitive units, each having…
This paper is a survey dedicated to the analogy between the notions of {\it complexity} in theoretical computer science and {\it energy} in physics. This analogy is not metaphorical: I describe three precise mathematical contexts, suggested…
From the philosopher's perspective, the interest in quantum computation stems primarily from the way that it combines fundamental concepts from two distinct sciences: physics (especially quantum mechanics) and computer science, each long a…