A river flows in one way rather than another because the particles that form the river have momentum one way rather than another. The reason they have this momentum is because the surfaces of the river interact with the air, obstacles, and the rock bed underneath it, and then pass on momentum to internal river particles, which pass on that momentum to other particles, etc. In this way, is the river not processing information regarding things it can directly "observe" about its environment at its surface, as well as the things it has experienced in the past, then processing that information deeper and deeper, until it ultimately leads to a decision on which way the river flows?
didntreadarticl|3 years ago
I suppose for what I'm calling processing there needs to be some order. Things that do processing (our cells, processors, etc) use energy to keep some order in the system (keep lower entropy than their surroundings by using energy from those surroundings). Whereas the river is just at maximum disorder relative to its surroundings the whole time.
You could make a water computer where water flows through pipes and collects in cups and then the weight of the cups implements AND gates and OR gates and so on. But in that case the order is provided by the pipework and the energy input is whatever gets the water to the top of the system (and maintains the pipework from being worn away over time)