If a tree casts a shadow is it telling the time?

TL;DR

This paper explores the nature of computation in physical processes and agent-based systems, proposing a reformulation of the Church-Turing thesis to better understand computation in complex, multi-scalar environments.

Contribution

It introduces a new formulation of the Church-Turing thesis focused on programs and discusses the challenges of modeling multi-scalar environments in agent-based computing.

Findings

Reformulation of the Church-Turing thesis for programs

Highlighting the gap in modeling multi-scalar environments

Emphasizing the importance of physical processes in computation

Abstract

Physical processes are computations only when we use them to externalize thought. Computation is the performance of one or more fixed processes within a contingent environment. We reformulate the Church-Turing thesis so that it applies to programs rather than to computability. When suitably formulated agent-based computing in an open, multi-scalar environment represents the current consensus view of how we interact with the world. But we don't know how to formulate multi-scalar environments.