Calculating Space

An elementary process in Zuse's Calculating Space: Two digital particles A and B form a new digital particle C.[1]

Calculating Space (German: Rechnender Raum) is Konrad Zuse's 1969 book on automata theory. He proposed that all processes in the universe are computational.[2] This view is known today as the simulation hypothesis, digital philosophy, digital physics or pancomputationalism.[3] Zuse proposed that the universe is being computed by some sort of cellular automaton or other discrete computing machinery,[2] challenging the long-held view that some physical laws are continuous by nature. He focused on cellular automata as a possible substrate of the computation, and pointed out that the classical notions of entropy and its growth do not make sense in deterministically computed universes.

See also

References

  1. ^ Zuse, Konrad (1967). "Rechnender Raum" (PDF). Elektronische Datenverarbeitung (in German). 8. Bad Hersfeld, Germany: 336–344. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-06-18. Retrieved 2022-08-02. (9 pages)
  2. ^ a b Mainzer, Klaus; Chua, Leon Ong (September 2011). The Universe as Automaton: From Simplicity and Symmetry to Complexity. Springer-Verlag. p. 6.
  3. ^ Müller, Vincent C. (January 2014). "Pancomputationalism: Theory or Metaphor?". In Hagengruber, Ruth; Riss, Uwe (eds.). Philosophy, Computing and Information Science. Pickering & Chattoo. pp. 213–221. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-10-21. Retrieved 2022-08-02.

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