Questions tagged [computation]
Computational theory is the study of calculations. Important questions are: what can be computed? How quickly can it be computed? What requirements or abilities must a computer have?
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Why is Entscheidungsproblem problem undecidable? [duplicate]
I have been trying to wrap my head around Gödel's Completeness Theorem, Incompleteness Theorem(s) and undecidability of Entscheidungsproblem. Turing wrote:
It should perhaps be remarked what I shall ...
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Philosophical meaning of the Curry Howard Correspondence
At a technical level, I understand the Curry-Howard correspondence in various settings, and its usefulness as a technical tool. What I'm looking for is a fairly rigorous discussion of genuinely ...
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4answers
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Paradoxes around Identity of consciousness, illusion of present time
Thought experiment:
Lets say we have two (or more) exactly same brains, in same state, doing exactly same neural activity (hardly possible in reality with biological brains, but eventually possible ...
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Computing Premises from Consequence
We write 'If A, then B' to mean that if A is true, then B must be true because B is a logical consequence of A i.e. it is impossible for A to be true but B to be false.
Let us consider one such ...
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689 views
Consciousness in Simulation theory & AI, why do some believe that it is even possible?
There are many famous philosophers that assume that "consciousness can be create by calculations in a computer". For example: Nick Bostrom with the simulation theory [I greatly respect and ...
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Where does computations occur, in Mind or in Matter?
Short and silly question, but it opens-up to a separation of idealism and materialism on the basis of information.
If computations (in the scenario of a materialistic-computational perspective of the ...
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135 views
Why is Turing claiming that a complete and computable axiomatization of arithmetic would imply the decidability of first-order logic?
So I'm reading the famous paper of Turing "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem". At the beginning of his proof of the undecidability of first-order logic (FOL), he ...
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Symbolic Processes & Thinking
My question is if there is some concrete symbolic logic at the foundation of human reasoning -something very rudimentary, but still formal? Question may be seen in context of the article given below.
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How do Probably Approximately Correct algorithms work, and is the PAC model an eludication of Piercean abduction
I recently read a fascinating review (in issue no. 136 of Philosophy Now) of Probably Approximately Correct written by Harvard Professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Leslie Valiant. ...
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215 views
Human Mind vs Computer
We start from axioms, use rules of logic, and derive theorems. These theorems establish what is the case in relation to the context. In all disciplines employing mathematics, we reason by saying '...
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117 views
In what contexts or disciplines does “One may assume X” imply “One may ignore the possibility of any statement contrary to X being true”?
In computer programming, it has become fashionable for compilers (processors of computer language) to apply the following form of reasoning:
A language standard would permit a compiler to assume that ...
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207 views
Computers, Artificial Intelligence, and Epistemology
Some classification schemes don't list logic as a separate branch of philosophy. I assume they regard logic as a component of epistemology.
Of course, others regard logic as a separate branch. The ...
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85 views
Where can I find arguments for animal rights?
I'm asking this question on behalf of https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/users/47/curi
I'm a philosopher (and programmer) attempting to research and diagram arguments relating to animal rights. I'm ...
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159 views
Is there a form of set theory involving imperatives and interrogatives?
I finally read the article Is there a Logic of Imperatives? Conifold showed me and it elicited the question, for me, whether imperative programming is a form of imperative logic at all? The essay took ...
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142 views
Is there a system where it is impossible to tell the fundamental type of probability?
Premise: What does it mean to take Planck's constant to 0? When someone takes Planck's constant to 0 then they do not effective just substitute Planck's constant with 0. The actual procedure is to ...
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What are some views on the ability to transfer consciousness into a machine?
What are some views on the ability to transfer consciousness into a machine? So when discussing this question, there are two set of questions that arises. What is consciousness, is it something that ...
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Are Max Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis and Seth Lloyd's Cosmological Model compatible?
I have been interested in Seth Lloyd's cosmological model (which proposes that the universe is a some kind of quantum computer or at least similar to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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114 views
Who first studied “logical (ir)reversibility”?
Who first studied "logical (ir)reversibility" philosophically?
By "logical (ir)reversibility" I mean questions like:Why is it easier to
multiply large numbers than to factorize them?
understand a ...
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1answer
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Inconsistency in Tegmark's Mathematical Universe Hypothesis?
Physicist Max Tegmark is widely known for proposing that there is a multiverse where mathematical structures would exist as real and actual universes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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112 views
Does Gregory Chaitin propose a computable or an uncomputable ontology?
Gregory Chaitin is a mathematician who thinks that the universe is itself a computer, or similar...
He has written papers closely related to the field of hypercomputation (For example, he invented the ...
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91 views
Is it there any specific and well known continous/analog alternative to Wheeler's discrete “It from Bit”?
Physicist John A Wheeler (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Wheeler) suggested the concept of "law without law" and "it from bit" which suggested that the universe did not have any laws ...
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Is it there any model of the universe (considered by physicists) which would be the product of a simulation?
There are various philosophical theories that propose that the universe is the product of a simulation. But I was looking for theories that propose this and are also considered by physicists (not only ...
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147 views
What is the relationship between computation and Gödel's incompleteness theorems? [closed]
In what way do Godel's incompleteness theorems impact computers/hypercomputers? Do they somehow prevent them from being capable of computing everything (of computing literally all uncomputable/...
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Is it possible to mathematically define a hypercomputer-universe where things that could not be computed by it could exist? [duplicate]
There are a few physicists that propose that the universe is a hypercomputer. One example is Roger Penrose, who, basing in his quantum interpretation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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Can hypercomputation compute the impossible?
There are things which are illogical/logically impossible (like saying that 2+2=4 and 2+2=5. Without changing anything in the axioms of mathematics or logic, this would be a contradiction and would be ...
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A universal game [closed]
In this question by "metagame" I mean a game which functions to create the rules of a sub-game.
Is there a universal metagame that would allow to create any game (including itself). Such game would ...
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Similar to Douglas Adam's HGTTG, Is there any philosophy that views human society as a computation?
In Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, Earth is a supercomputer that is computing the the Ultimate question, whose answer is 42.
I was wondering is Douglas Adams was inspired by any ...
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1answer
259 views
Are uncomputable numbers/things a problem for Wheeler's “it from bit”?
I have some questions related to Wheeler's ideas of "It from bit" and "Law without law"
In summary, these both theories postulate that there was an initial universe with no laws from which laws of ...
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127 views
Can Schmidhuber's hypothesis reproduce all types of universes? And Wheeler's it from bit? Or Weizsäcker's ur-theory?
I found a paper that talked about paraconsistent logic systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraconsistent_logic) and trivialist systems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivialism) and the ...
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3answers
210 views
Book Recommendation for Computational Theory of Mind
These days I'm really into studying the Computational Theory of Mind (CTM)
and I have read papers and documents online.
However, I have difficulty capturing the overall (received) theories of CTM at ...
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121 views
Is 't Hooft cellular automaton compatible with Floridi's Informational (Structural) Realism?
Informational (Structural) Realism (by Luciano Floridi) relates to digital physics ideas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_physics)
As Floridi himself says in one of his articles (http://philsci-...
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2answers
114 views
Free will: is reality a record, a game or unpredictable?
If a world is a record (a film), then this scenario does not have conditional rules, i.e., if it can be implemented as a computer program, it will not have "if ... then ..." commands.
If a world is a ...
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2answers
255 views
Where is the knowledge that AI's “knowledge representations” represent?
I find this really confusing. AI often says its computer systems "know" things, but when AI explains how to program a computer to be intelligent, it talks only about "knowledge representation". E.g., ...
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Where to find the “tightened up” definitions of computing mentioned by Searle?
I think it is probably possible to block the result of universal realizability by tightening up our definition of computation. Certainly we ought to respect the fact that programmers and engineers ...
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178 views
Is philosophy computation?
If philosophy is mathematics and mathematics is computation, can I conclude that philosophy is computation? Can we axiomatize philosophy? Can a computer think for us, given the current rise of AI?
I'...
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296 views
The mathematical language of the brain
This question is similar, but not identical, to one I posted to the mathematics SE some time ago. I was originally unsure of where to post it. I believe this question is sufficiently different to ...
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1answer
818 views
Can computers do things Turing machines can't?
Today's electronic digital computers are often referred to as universal Turing machines. That is, the concept of the UTM is used to understand today's stored-program electronic digital computers. But ...
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1answer
116 views
What are the philosophical points that make bear out in the ZFC vs ZF debate?
Or rather why do some people vehemently reject axiom of choice?
I am interested from this from the perspective of the philosophy of computation. Intuitively, from the little I know, it seems people ...
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707 views
Why doesn't the Chinese room learn Chinese?
I just can't see how John Searle's Chinese room makes sense. The room passes the Turing test. People outside the room think there's a human inside who understands Chinese. But, Searle explains, the ...
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1answer
185 views
Is ESP, in particular telepathy, not computable?
In Alan Turing’s “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” he writes in 6(9) The Argument from Extrasensory Perception that
I assume that the reader is familiar with the idea of extrasensory ...
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2answers
186 views
Does adding structure make the Chinese room semantic?
The Chinese room reacts just to syntax, or shape of symbols (is purely syntactic). But brains are full of structure. In the room, Chinese symbols sit scattered in "piles" on the floor or are moved ...
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1answer
127 views
Is computationalism really a theory, or is it more like a doctrine or creed?
When studying AI, computationalism was always referred to as a theory, a theory of mind, the theory that the mind is an executing computation. But is it really a theory? How could it be disproved or ...
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5answers
209 views
Dichotomy problem: limits of binary systems
What are the limitations of accumulating or storing knowledge in a binary system? For a more concrete question, can all knowledge information be represented by an infinite sequence of 1's and 0's or ...
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3answers
552 views
Does Bitcoin disprove solipsism?
According to Wikipedia, solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist.
In 1993, Cynthia Dwork and Moni Naor
proposed the idea that one could use proof-of-work
to ...
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1answer
535 views
Is quantum indeterminacy inextricable from observation?
I understand uncertainty from a combinatorial and game theoretic perspective, as functions of incomplete or imperfect information, or intractability which is a type of inaccessible information in that ...
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367 views
Logic and Computation: a philosophical viewpoint on Curry-Howard isomorphism
The link between logic and computation is stronger than ever, especially since the establishment of the Curry-Howard isomorphism specifying that proofs can be seen as programs and formulas as program'...
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Rethinking arithmetic operations after J.L. Austin's performativity?
According to Kant, arithmetic statements such as "7+5=12" are synthetic a priori. Could we alternatively think of this not as a statement, but as an arithmetic-logic operation to be executed (like a ...
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128 views
What is understanding (of natural language texts) and how can we test or measure it?
What is the definition of the understanding of (written) natural language and how can we test or measure this understanding? What is understanding of the symbolic knowledge be it encoded in any form? ...
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2answers
414 views
Ancestor Simulations Theory contradicts Chaos Theory, Quantum Mechanics and Irreducibility? [closed]
(NB. I've no training as a philosopher, but I'm a student of science with an interest)
So there in the media this theory of reality as a simulation is gaining popularity, mostly because of types as ...
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4answers
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How does Penrose defeat the computational theory of mind?
In Shadows Of The Mind Roger Penrose puts forth a Gödelian argument against the computational theory of mind. He then goes on to suggest that quantum mechanics plays a central role in the realization ...
