[vageli]

> perhaps performing computations is to studying computation as observing the universe through a telescope is to studying it.

This is an interesting thought, but the two seem fundamentally different in nature (active vs passive).

[ineedasername]

Yes, and to a certain extent, you can study computation without a digital computer. Computation can be abstracted away from the devices that perform it. You can, for example, study Big O notation and theoretical computational complexity of algorithms without actually using a computer.