When does a physical system compute?

Horsman, Clare and Stepney, Susan and Wagner, Rob C. and Kendon, Viv (2014) When does a physical system compute? Proceedings of the Royal Society A : Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 470 (2169). pp. 1-25. ISSN 1471-2962 (https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2014.0182)

[thumbnail of Horsman-etal-PRSA2014-When-does-physical-system-compute]
Preview
Text. Filename: Horsman_etal_PRSA2014_When_does_physical_system_compute.pdf
Final Published Version
License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 logo

Download (687kB)| Preview

Abstract

Computing is a high-level process of a physical system. Recent interest in non-standard computing systems, including quantum and biological computers, has brought this physical basis of computing to the forefront. There has been, however, no consensus on how to tell if a given physical system is acting as a computer or not; leading to confusion over novel computational devices, and even claims that every physical event is a computation. In this paper, we introduce a formal framework that can be used to determine whether a physical system is performing a computation. We demonstrate how the abstract computational level interacts with the physical device level, in comparison with the use of mathematical models in experimental science. This powerful formulation allows a precise description of experiments, technology, computation and simulation, giving our central conclusion: physical computing is the use of a physical system to predict the outcome of an abstract evolution. We give conditions for computing, illustrated using a range of nonstandard computing scenarios. The framework also covers broader computing contexts, where there is no obvious human computer user. We introduce the notion of a 'computational entity', and its critical role in defining when computing is taking place in physical systems.

ORCID iDs

Horsman, Clare, Stepney, Susan, Wagner, Rob C. and Kendon, Viv ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6551-3056;