Computation is a physical process, inevitably utilizing physical degrees of freedom.
Computation, therefore, is restricted by the laws of physics and also by the construction …

Computing systems are everywhere today. Even the brain is thought to be a sort of
computing system. But what does it mean to say that a given organ or system computes …

Two aspects of the physical side of the Church-Turing thesis are discussed. The first issue is
a variant of the Eleatic argument against motion, dealing with Zeno squeezed time cycles of …

It is my great pleasure to write this preface for Dr. Nir Fresco's book “Physical Computation
and Cognitive Science” based on his doctoral thesis “Concrete Digital Computation …

Quantum theory and the classical theory of computation were perfected in the 1930s, and
fifty years later they were unified to form the quantum theory of computation. Here I want to …

So, ultimately, in order to understand nature it may be necessary to have a deeper
understanding of mathematical relationships. But the real reason is that the subject is …

What are the limits of physical computation? In his 'Church's Thesis and Principles for
Mechanisms', Turing's student Robin Gandy proved that any machine satisfying four …

Gualtiero Piccinini articulates and defends a mechanistic account of concrete, or physical,
computation. A physical system is a computing system just in case it is a mechanism one of …

The natural science of computing Page 1 AUGUST 2017 | VOL. 60 | NO. 8 |
COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM 31 viewpoints PHO T OB YT OBIN FRICKE/FLICKR next big …

More than a speculative technology, quantum computing seems to challenge our most basic
intuitions about how the physical world should behave. In this thesis I show that, while some …