The machine as data: a computational view of emergence and definability

DOI10.1007/S11229-015-0803-4zbMATH OpenNonearXiv1506.06270OpenAlexW753604061WikidataQ59896828 ScholiaQ59896828MaRDI QIDQ514566FDOQ514566

Authors: S. Barry Cooper 

Publication date: 9 March 2017

Published in: Synthese (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Turing's (1936) paper on computable numbers has played its role in underpinning different perspectives on the world of information. On the one hand, it encourages a digital ontology, with a perceived flatness of computational structure comprehensively hosting causality at the physical level and beyond. On the other (the main point of Turing's paper), it can give an insight into the way in which higher order information arises and leads to loss of computational control - while demonstrating how the control can be re-established, in special circumstances, via suitable type reductions. We examine the classical computational framework more closely than is usual, drawing out lessons for the wider application of information-theoretical approaches to characterizing the real world. The problem which arises across a range of contexts is the characterizing of the balance of power between the complexity of informational structure (with emergence, chaos, randomness and 'big data' prominently on the scene) and the means available (simulation, codes, statistical sampling, human intuition, semantic constructs) to bring this information back into the computational fold. We proceed via appropriate mathematical modelling to a more coherent view of the computational structure of information, relevant to a wide spectrum of areas of investigation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06270

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zbMATH Keywords

emergenceuniversalityembodimenthigher order computationincomputabilityTuring definability

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) History of mathematical logic and foundations (03-03) Higher-type and set recursion theory (03D65) Applications of computability and recursion theory (03D80) Turing machines and related notions (03D10) General topics in the theory of computing (68Q01)

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Cited In (7)

• The Extended Turing Model as Contextual Tool
• Incomputability emergent, and higher type computation
• Emergence as a computability-theoretic phenomenon
• Against digital ontology
• From Descartes to Turing: the computational content of supervenience
• IN MEMORIAM: BARRY COOPER 1943–2015
• The ontology of digital physics

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