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Is life a form of computation?

(thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
222 points redeemed | 1 comments | 23 Sep 25 20:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.209s | source
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karmakurtisaani ◴[23 Sep 25 21:37 UTC] No.45353075[source]▶
I don't see the point of asking this question. Like, sure, all physical systems follow certain rules, so any such process will develop in a way that it look like a computation of an algorithm. Also, evolution itself is constantly optimizing organisms to best adapt to their environment, just like a computation.

So asking if life is a computation seems mostly like a semantic musing. Define "life" and define "computation", then see if they're the same.

replies(3): >>45353368 #>>45353391 #>>45353833 #
1. logtempo ◴[23 Sep 25 22:08 UTC] No.45353391[source]▶
The title should definitely be "Is it possible to simulate living organism?" given the last sentence is "Simulations like these show how computation can produce lifelike behavior across scales".

Nothing about life is discussed here, it's not even defined once.