On Sun, Apr 23, 2017 at 09:38:26PM +1000, Bruce Kellett wrote: > On 23/04/2017 8:52 pm, Quentin Anciaux wrote: > >It's you who's begging the question, first define what is a > >computation with physics first, without relying on abstract > >mathematical notion. > > A computation with physics is what is happening in the computer I am > currently working on. I can describe this in mathematical notation > if you wish, but the process is not the notation. Any process that > takes input and produces output is a computation. All physical > objects do this. And physical objects do not know any mathematics. >
That is the definition of a physical process, not a computation. If we take the usual (mathematical) meaning of computation, then I can point to a potential counter-example: beta-decay. Recording the arrival times of electrons from beta decay using a clock and electron detector gives a time series that to our best knowledge is random and hence uncomputable. It is an undeniable physical process that is not a computation. Back to my pop corn! -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Senior Research Fellow [email protected] Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
