Nous avons le plaisir de vous annoncer la prochaine séance de l’axe “Histoire et pratique de l’informatique” du séminaire “Réflexions sur les processus de calcul, d’information et de programmation” qui aura lieu jeudi 14 Avril à 16h dans la salle des conférences de l’IHPST (13 rue du Four, Paris; 1er étage). Nous accueillerions:
Martin Schüle (ZHAW, Zurich University of Applied Sciences), On the nature of computation
Computational notions abound in the sciences. Especially in the fields of biology and neuroscience computational capacities are often ascribed to entities and processes. Yet it is not clear what kind of “computation” is at work there. Can it be still treated within traditional computational theory or is some other more general or vague notion of computation needed? I discuss and assess diverse models of computation as developed in various fields and the main proposals in the philosophical literature in regard to concepts of “computation”. A case study on cellular automata, a particular computational model, will then reveal, I argue, the conditions a biological or other system should meet in order to agree with a notion of computation both definable in clear terms and amenable to further scientific research.