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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: 0s | source
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rck ◴[23 Sep 25 21:38 UTC] No.45353089[source]▶
This feels like the kind of popsci that's written for people who already agree with the author - there's nothing resembling an argument, or even a definition of "computation." There are nods to Church-Turing, but the leap from "every effectively calculable function is computable" to "life is a computation" is larger than anything you could fit in a book.
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1. esafak ◴[24 Sep 25 14:19 UTC] No.45360809[source]▶
Is the author advancing a new argument? Has anyone read the book? A quick review suggests that the author posits that symbiogenesis is central to evolution, and artificial intelligence. This is interesting because I recall no mention of this mechanism in the current AI literature. The promise of a symbiotic relationship with artificial life sounds like a balm to people anxious about the future. It is a possibility, not a certainty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis

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