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Is there any Real Substance to the Claims for a ‘New Computationalism’?

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Unveiling Dynamics and Complexity (CiE 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 10307))

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Abstract

Computationalism is a relatively vague term used to describe attempts to apply Turing’s model of computation to phenomena outside its original purview: in modelling the human mind, in physics, mathematics, etc. Early versions of computationalism faced strong objections from many (and varied) quarters, from philosophers to practitioners of the aforementioned disciplines. Here we will not address the fundamental question of whether computational models are appropriate for describing some or all of the wide range of processes that they have been applied to, but will focus instead on whether ‘renovated’ versions of the new computationalism shed any new light on or resolve previous tensions between proponents and skeptics. We find this, however, not to be the case, because the new computationalism falls short by using limited versions of “traditional computation”, or proposing computational models that easily fall within the scope of Turing’s original model, or else proffering versions of hypercomputation with its many pitfalls.

Invited contribution to Computability in Europe (CiE) 2017 – ‘Unveiling Dynamics and Complexity’.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Matemáticas, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

    Alberto Hernández-Espinosa & Francisco Hernández-Quiroz

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Héctor Zenil

  3. Information Dynamics Lab, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Héctor Zenil

  4. Algorithmic Nature Group, LABORES, Paris, France

    Héctor Zenil

Authors
  1. Alberto Hernández-Espinosa
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  2. Francisco Hernández-Quiroz
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  3. Héctor Zenil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Héctor Zenil .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Jarkko Kari

  2. Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Florin Manea

  3. Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Ion Petre

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Hernández-Espinosa, A., Hernández-Quiroz, F., Zenil, H. (2017). Is there any Real Substance to the Claims for a ‘New Computationalism’?. In: Kari, J., Manea, F., Petre, I. (eds) Unveiling Dynamics and Complexity. CiE 2017. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10307. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58741-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58741-7_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58740-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-58741-7

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