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by lo_zamoyski
468 days ago
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Mechanical computers are a great reminder of what computation is and what it isn't. Computation as studied by computer science is not a physical phenomenon, but a mathematical construct that claims to formalize the notion of an effective method. This claim is perhaps most tangibly expressed in the form of the Church-Turing thesis. Computing devices are not objectively computing. They simulate the formal construct. Anything that can be used "computer-wise" can be said to be a computer in the same manner that anything that can be used chair-wise can be said to be a chair. But there is nothing inherently computational about the device itself. |
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Isn't it backwards? I don't think that e.g. herding sheep into the pen while making a mark on the door for each sheep "simulates counting sheep". Instead, you can use the formal construct "counting sheep" to describe this physical process: "doing this and this will count the sheep".
Otherwise you may very easily end up puzzled why maths is so unreasonably effective in natural sciences.