Curtis-Trudel, Andre E (2024) Computation in Context. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Unlimited pancomputationalism claims that every physical system implements every computational model simultaneously. Some philosophers argue that unlimited pancomputationalism renders implementation `trivial' or `vacuous', unsuitable for serious scientific work. A popular and natural reaction to this argument is to reject unlimited pancomputationalism. However, I argue that given certain assumptions about the nature of computational ascription, unlimited pancomputationalism does not entail that implementation is trivial. These assumptions concern the relativity and context sensitivity of computational ascription. Very roughly: relative to a specific, contextually salient way of regarding a physical system computationally, the claim that that system implements a specific computational model is as non-trivial as one could reasonably want.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Curtis-Trudel, Andre E ae.trudel@gmail.com 0000-0002-2008-6134
Keywords:	Computation, triviality, implementation
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Computer Science
Depositing User:	Andre E Curtis-Trudel
Date Deposited:	01 Aug 2024 00:25
Last Modified:	01 Aug 2024 00:25
Item ID:	23734
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computation/Information Specific Sciences > Computer Science
Date:	2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/23734

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