Abstract
In recent years, a new generation of scholars have begun searching for physical signatures of computation. That is, they have begun investigating what it takes for a physical system to implement a computation with unprecedented attention to the scientific practices involving computation, including computer science and engineering, in hopes of identifying physical differences between systems that implement computations and systems that don’t. This symposium will introduce recent progress in this area to a wider audience. It will illustrate how our understanding of physical computation has deepened and become more sophisticated and how it can be informed by scientific practices that were not on the horizon of most philosophers of science until quite recently. The participants in this symposium are also engaged in a lively debate with one another, which will stimulate both them and the audience to make further progress. Providing an adequate account of computational implementation has real implications for the foundations of the computational theory of cognition, the notion of biological computation, the construction of novel forms of computers, the foundations of physics, and more. Thus, this symposium is likely to attract a wide audience.
