Name: Anonymous 2011-11-22 13:47
Following a few threads over the past year or more, I've been toying with the idea of writing a manifesto for Computationalism. As a sort of motion in that direction, I've completed a small draft of the introduction. Having read it, I think the first paragraph comes across a bit too strong, so I may end up rewriting part of it.
What do you think? Should I continue with this effort?
I would hope to cover the Computational Universe Hypothesis, the Anthropic Principle, black-hole physics, entropy and Holographic Principle, classical finitism, and other related subjects. Ultimately, I would like to deliver the message that computing is a more noble pursuit than that of mathematics, and that it is time we recognize that fact.
The set ℝ of real numbers is an imaginary concept that plagues the minds of many young Mathematicians. Having become infected with this disease of the mind, they begin to think in terms of abstract mathematical objects existing independently of any physical reality. A type of Mathematical Realism or Empiricism, to borrow the epistemological term. And with this dangerous line of thought, it is not long before they begin to think that these abstract objects might even underly the very principles that govern our Universe. They believe that Physics can be explained in terms of Mathematics, and that Mathematics, as a field, forms the foundation of all scientific endeavor to understand our world.
Mention ``Computation'' to your typical mathematician and he will roll his eyes and dryly reply "Oh, Computer Science? That's merely Applied Mathematics," before absently shuffling on to another subject. It is rather unfortunate that they overlook the field of Computation; it is sad in the same sense that a blind and deaf man stumbling along in the country side isn't aware that he's been walking down a set of train tracks for the entire duration of the afternoon and is about get hit by an oncoming train.
Yes. The world's great thinkers are slowly and surely coming around to Computation, realizing that there is far more to this field than first meets the mind's eye. And much like how the steam engine redefined transportation in the industrial era, Computation is about to redefine everything in the near future. Some believe that the Golden Era of Computing has already taken place, but I would like to think that isn't the case. The true Golden Era of Computing is barreling down the tracks right now, and with it a reversal of perspective on the field of Mathematics and its place as the foundation of the sciences and even the cosmos.
To your average ZFC-worshiping, dyed and true formula cruncher, this all might seem rather innocent and fanciful. But I can assure you that it is based in hard, empirical fact. Facts. Truths. Declarative knowledge. The very things that mathematicians love to to say they deal with. But it wasn't always this way. Mathematics used to be known by different names. In ancient Greece, it was known as γεω-μετρία (geo-metria); when translated, meaning to "measure the earth." In ancient Egyptian times it was known as the study of "Seqed" or "Slope" problems. You see, our ancient sophists had a rather confusing view on things in which they could not separate the underlying fundamentals of what they were trying to do from their instruments, applications, and requirements. And today, like then, your average person has a hard time separating the fundamentals of Computation from the hardware, software, and use cases. Is it so hard then to grasp that Computation might actually be of more importance then it has been granted these past decades?
Let's cut to basis of the argument. Mathematics is Distilled Computation. Or to be slightly more poignant, replace ``Distilled'' with ``Watered-Down.'' Maths is a human language, one which captures the declarative knowledge and information of the higher-level processes of our very own computational minds. Nothing more. Take away the machinery of the human brain, and you are left with nothing more than abstract symbols with no semantical meaning. At the very least, you require a Turing equivalent machine programmed to interpret the language of Mathematics to make any sense of it. Surely, what I speak of is madness--what about Mathematical truths? How can something so illusory appear to be so right? It's quite simple actually; it is because there are Computational truths! Mathematics is merely emergent and incidental to Computation!
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all of Maths is useless or wrong. Rather, as a fuzzy human grammar it is still quite useful in solving real problems, communicating ideas and predicting valuable results. What is wrong, however, is the place within our society that we grant the field. We give Mathematicians too much credit, all the while ignoring the plight of our industrious Computationalists.
What do you think? Should I continue with this effort?
I would hope to cover the Computational Universe Hypothesis, the Anthropic Principle, black-hole physics, entropy and Holographic Principle, classical finitism, and other related subjects. Ultimately, I would like to deliver the message that computing is a more noble pursuit than that of mathematics, and that it is time we recognize that fact.
The set ℝ of real numbers is an imaginary concept that plagues the minds of many young Mathematicians. Having become infected with this disease of the mind, they begin to think in terms of abstract mathematical objects existing independently of any physical reality. A type of Mathematical Realism or Empiricism, to borrow the epistemological term. And with this dangerous line of thought, it is not long before they begin to think that these abstract objects might even underly the very principles that govern our Universe. They believe that Physics can be explained in terms of Mathematics, and that Mathematics, as a field, forms the foundation of all scientific endeavor to understand our world.
Mention ``Computation'' to your typical mathematician and he will roll his eyes and dryly reply "Oh, Computer Science? That's merely Applied Mathematics," before absently shuffling on to another subject. It is rather unfortunate that they overlook the field of Computation; it is sad in the same sense that a blind and deaf man stumbling along in the country side isn't aware that he's been walking down a set of train tracks for the entire duration of the afternoon and is about get hit by an oncoming train.
Yes. The world's great thinkers are slowly and surely coming around to Computation, realizing that there is far more to this field than first meets the mind's eye. And much like how the steam engine redefined transportation in the industrial era, Computation is about to redefine everything in the near future. Some believe that the Golden Era of Computing has already taken place, but I would like to think that isn't the case. The true Golden Era of Computing is barreling down the tracks right now, and with it a reversal of perspective on the field of Mathematics and its place as the foundation of the sciences and even the cosmos.
To your average ZFC-worshiping, dyed and true formula cruncher, this all might seem rather innocent and fanciful. But I can assure you that it is based in hard, empirical fact. Facts. Truths. Declarative knowledge. The very things that mathematicians love to to say they deal with. But it wasn't always this way. Mathematics used to be known by different names. In ancient Greece, it was known as γεω-μετρία (geo-metria); when translated, meaning to "measure the earth." In ancient Egyptian times it was known as the study of "Seqed" or "Slope" problems. You see, our ancient sophists had a rather confusing view on things in which they could not separate the underlying fundamentals of what they were trying to do from their instruments, applications, and requirements. And today, like then, your average person has a hard time separating the fundamentals of Computation from the hardware, software, and use cases. Is it so hard then to grasp that Computation might actually be of more importance then it has been granted these past decades?
Let's cut to basis of the argument. Mathematics is Distilled Computation. Or to be slightly more poignant, replace ``Distilled'' with ``Watered-Down.'' Maths is a human language, one which captures the declarative knowledge and information of the higher-level processes of our very own computational minds. Nothing more. Take away the machinery of the human brain, and you are left with nothing more than abstract symbols with no semantical meaning. At the very least, you require a Turing equivalent machine programmed to interpret the language of Mathematics to make any sense of it. Surely, what I speak of is madness--what about Mathematical truths? How can something so illusory appear to be so right? It's quite simple actually; it is because there are Computational truths! Mathematics is merely emergent and incidental to Computation!
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all of Maths is useless or wrong. Rather, as a fuzzy human grammar it is still quite useful in solving real problems, communicating ideas and predicting valuable results. What is wrong, however, is the place within our society that we grant the field. We give Mathematicians too much credit, all the while ignoring the plight of our industrious Computationalists.