Anderson N. The Physical Signature of Computation. A Robust Mapping Account 2024

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Anderson N. The Physical Signature of Computation. A Robust Mapping Account 2024

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Textbook in PDF format In The Physical Signature of Computation, Neal Anderson and Gualtiero Piccinini articulate and defend the robust mapping account--the most systematic, rigorous, and comprehensive account of computational implementation to date. Drawing in part from recent results in physical information theory, they argue that mapping accounts of implementation can be made adequate by incorporating appropriate physical constraints. According to the robust mapping account, the key constraint on mappings from physical to computational states--the key for establishing that a computation is physically implemented--is physical-computational equivalence: evolving physical states bear neither more nor less information about the evolving computation than do the computational states they map onto. When this highly nontrivial constraint is satisfied, among others that are spelled out as part of the account, a physical system can be said to implement a computation in a robust sense, which means that the system bears the physical signature of the computation. Anderson and Piccinini apply their robust mapping account to important questions in physical foundations of computation and cognitive science, including the alleged indeterminacy of computation, pancomputationalism, and the computational theory of mind. They show that physical computation is determinate, nontrivial versions of pancomputationalism fail, and cognition involves computation only insofar as neurocognitive systems bear the physical signature of specific computations. They also argue that both consciousness and physics outstrip computation. Introduction Physical Computation: A Philosophical Primer Computation: Abstract and Concrete Computation and Simulation Extensional Adequacy: What Does and Does Not Compute Pancomputationalism: Insight or Illusion? Desiderata for Accounts of Physical Computation Three Accounts of Concrete Computation: Mapping, Semantic, and Mechanistic The Physical Church-Turing Thesis Summary Physical and Computational Description What Is Physical? Physical Systems and Physical Description Classes of Physical Description Computing Systems and Their Formal Definition Similarities and Differences between Physical and Computational Descriptions Summary Computational Description of Physical Systems Physical-to-Computational Mappings (PCMs) Computational Description of a Physical System (CDPS) Defined Remarks on Computational Descriptions of Physical Systems Summary Descriptive Strength and the Adequacy of Implementation Claims Criterion S: Computational States Criterion P: Computational Processes Criterion PCE: Physical-Computational Equivalence Criterion U: Usability Classification of Computational Descriptions Evaluating Implementation Claims Summary The Robust Mapping Account of Implementation The Robust Mapping Account The Robust Mapping Account as an Account of Physical Computation Formalizing the Robust Mapping Account in Physical Information Theory Summary Unlimited Pancomputationalism Arguments for Unlimited Pancomputationalism Complex Open Systems Systems with Clocks and Dials Combinatorial State Automata Discussion: What Accepting Unlimited Pancomputationalism Means Summary Limited Pancomputationalism Arguments for Limited Pancomputationalism Causal Limited Pancomputationalism Informational Limited Pancomputationalism Universal Limited Pancomputationalism Summary Ontic Pancomputationalism Forms of Ontic Pancomputationalism and Their Empirical Claims The Metaphysical Component of Ontic Pancomputationalism Weak Simulationism Strong Simulationism Computational Pythagoreanism Computational Structuralism Summary Computation and the Mind What Is a Mind? Levels, Powers, and Qualities Mechanisms, Multiple Realizability, and Medium Independence Organisms and Teleological Functions Cognitive Computation Computation and Consciousness Consciousness beyond Computation Summary Conclusion: The Physical Signature of Computation Computational Descriptions of Physical Systems and the Robust Mapping Account The Illusion of Pancomputationalism: Why Not Everything Computes The Robust Mapping Account in Context Toward a Unified Account of Biological and Artifact Computation Conclusion