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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13263 |
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| _version_ | 1866915346493997056 |
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| author | Müller, Vincent C. |
| author_facet | Müller, Vincent C. |
| contents | The theory that all processes in the universe are computational is attractive in its promise to provide an understandable theory of everything. I want to suggest here that this pancomputationalism is not sufficiently clear on which problem it is trying to solve, and how. I propose two interpretations of pancomputationalism as a theory: I) the world is a computer and II) the world can be described as a computer. The first implies a thesis of supervenience of the physical over computation and is thus reduced ad absurdum. The second is underdetermined by the world, and thus equally unsuccessful as theory. Finally, I suggest that pancomputationalism as metaphor can be useful. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_13263 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Pancomputationalism: Theory or metaphor? Müller, Vincent C. Other Computer Science The theory that all processes in the universe are computational is attractive in its promise to provide an understandable theory of everything. I want to suggest here that this pancomputationalism is not sufficiently clear on which problem it is trying to solve, and how. I propose two interpretations of pancomputationalism as a theory: I) the world is a computer and II) the world can be described as a computer. The first implies a thesis of supervenience of the physical over computation and is thus reduced ad absurdum. The second is underdetermined by the world, and thus equally unsuccessful as theory. Finally, I suggest that pancomputationalism as metaphor can be useful. |
| title | Pancomputationalism: Theory or metaphor? |
| topic | Other Computer Science |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13263 |