The representational entity in physical computing

Susan Stepney; Viv Kendon

doi:10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3

The representational entity in physical computing

Susan Stepney, Viv Kendon

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We have developed abstraction/representation (AR) theory to answer the question “When does a physical system compute?” AR theory requires the existence of a representational entity (RE), but the vanilla theory does not explicitly include the RE in its definition of physical computing. Here we extend the theory by showing how the RE forms a linked complementary model to the physical computing model. We show that the RE does not need to be a human brain, by demonstrating its use in the case of intrinsic computing in a non-human RE: a bacterium.

Original language	English
Journal	Natural Computing
Volume	2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3
Publication status	Published - 18 Sept 2020

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3

The representational entity in physical computing
© The Author(s) 2020
Final published version, 682 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{920cceb8766041699f73b1e9ffcbb02e,

title = "The representational entity in physical computing",

abstract = "We have developed abstraction/representation (AR) theory to answer the question “When does a physical system compute?” AR theory requires the existence of a representational entity (RE), but the vanilla theory does not explicitly include the RE in its definition of physical computing. Here we extend the theory by showing how the RE forms a linked complementary model to the physical computing model. We show that the RE does not need to be a human brain, by demonstrating its use in the case of intrinsic computing in a non-human RE: a bacterium.",

author = "Susan Stepney and Viv Kendon",

note = "{\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2020",

year = "2020",

month = sep,

day = "18",

doi = "10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3",

language = "English",

volume = "2020",

journal = "Natural Computing",

issn = "1567-7818",

publisher = "Springer",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The representational entity in physical computing

AU - Stepney, Susan

AU - Kendon, Viv

PY - 2020/9/18

Y1 - 2020/9/18

N2 - We have developed abstraction/representation (AR) theory to answer the question “When does a physical system compute?” AR theory requires the existence of a representational entity (RE), but the vanilla theory does not explicitly include the RE in its definition of physical computing. Here we extend the theory by showing how the RE forms a linked complementary model to the physical computing model. We show that the RE does not need to be a human brain, by demonstrating its use in the case of intrinsic computing in a non-human RE: a bacterium.

AB - We have developed abstraction/representation (AR) theory to answer the question “When does a physical system compute?” AR theory requires the existence of a representational entity (RE), but the vanilla theory does not explicitly include the RE in its definition of physical computing. Here we extend the theory by showing how the RE forms a linked complementary model to the physical computing model. We show that the RE does not need to be a human brain, by demonstrating its use in the case of intrinsic computing in a non-human RE: a bacterium.

U2 - 10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3

DO - 10.1007/s11047-020-09805-3

M3 - Article

SN - 1567-7818

VL - 2020

JO - Natural Computing

JF - Natural Computing

ER -