Introduction to What is Computation
Abstract
What is computation? This has always been the most
fundamental question of our field. In the 1930s, as the field
was starting, the answer was that computation was the action of
people who operated calculator machines. By the late 1940s, the
answer was that computation was steps carried out by automated
computers to produce definite outputs. That definition did very
well: it remained the standard for nearly fifty years. But it is
now being challenged. People in many fields have accepted
that computational thinking is a way of approaching science
and engineering. The Internet is full of servers that provide
nonstop computation endlessly. Researchers in biology and
physics have claimed the discovery of natural computational
processes that have nothing to do with computers. How must our
definition evolve to answer the challenges of brains computing,
algorithms never terminating by design, computation as a
natural occurrence, and computation without computers?
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://doi.org/10.1093/comjnl/bxs065
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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