COMPUTABLE UNIVERSE, A: UNDERSTANDING AND EXPLORING NATURE AS COMPUTATION

This volume, with a foreword by Sir Roger Penrose, discusses the foundations of computation in relation to nature.It focuses on two main questions: What is computation? How does nature compute? The contributors are world-renowned experts who have helped shape a cutting-edge computational understanding of the universe. They discuss computation in the world from a variety of perspectives, ranging from foundational concepts to pragmatic models to ontological conceptions and philosophical implications.The volume provides a state-of-the-art collection of technical papers and non-technical essays, representing a field that assumes information and computation to be key in understanding and explaining the basic structure underpinning physical reality. It also includes a new edition of Konrad Zuse's “Calculating Space” (the MIT translation), and a panel discussion transcription on the topic, featuring worldwide experts in quantum mechanics, physics, cognition, computation and algorithmic complexity.The volume is dedicated to the memory of Alan M Turing — the inventor of universal computation, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, and is part of the Turing Centenary celebrations.

Hector Zenil (BSc Math, UNAM; MPhil Logic, Sorbonne; PhD Computer Science, Lille 1), is a researcher at the Behavioural and Evolutionary Theory Lab of the Department of Computer Science of The University of Sheffield, head of the Algorithmic Nature Group, and Senior Research Associate for Wolfram Research. He is also a member of the FQXi; honorary associate of ASSRU (Economics, U. of Trento); a member of the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee (UK); and member of the SNI (Conacyt, Mexico).

He has held visiting positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University (visiting scholar) and Wolfram Research (research fellow).