PANCOMPUTATIONALISM

Our universe can be seen as a huge computing machine.
That is the idea of Pancomputationalism.

A Strongly Recommended Book

Philosophy of Computing and Information - 5 Questions,
Edited by Luciano Floridi - Book Review
Cybernetics and Human Knowing, forthcoming

How information and computation relate to life?

I consider myself info-computationalist, that is to say I think of the universe as a huge network of computational processes on many different levels of organization. The structure in that view is information, while the dynamics (change) is computation. Information and computation are mutually defining – there is no information (structure) without computation (change), and no computation without informational structure. Info-computationalism (ICON) is a kind of pancomputationalism, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancomputationalism

In a computing universe, biological organisms and their minds are computational too - on several levels of granularity (levels of description).

What is special about living organisms is their ability to use information in order to survive, adapt, interact and learn – among others.

There are numerous indications from cognitive science and neuroscience which reveal computational character of cognition. ICON offers an elegant solution to the controversy about digital vs. analog character of cognitive phenomena by suggesting that both sorts of explanations are necessary for the complete description of the observed behaviors.

More about ICON soon.

My research papers available online on http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/

Video:
Info-Computationalism ( ICON ) Part 1 + PPT Presentation Part 1
Info-Computationalism ( ICON ) Part 2 + PPT Presentation Part 2
Info-Computationalism ( ICON ) Part 3 + PPT Presentation Part 3