[rck]

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.

[seanhunter]

Reminds me of Wolfram's "Principle of Computational Equivalence"[1].

1. Things in nature have a maximum complexity which is like computation 2. Most things get this complicated 3. Therefore most things are "computationally equivalent" 4. "For example, the workings of the human brain or the evolution of weather systems can, in principle, compute the same things as a computer. "

The leap between things being in an equivalence class according to some relation and being "in principle, the same" might present difficulty if you've done any basic set theory, but that's just because you lack vision.

[1] https://mathworld.wolfram.com/PrincipleofComputationalEquiva...

[vidarh]

This principle is just applying Turing equivalence to the hypothesis that there is nothing in nature that is effectively computable but exceeds the Turing computable (which would be the "maximal level of computational power")

Given we have no evidence of the existence of anything effectively computable that is not Turing computable, it's a reasonable hypothesis, with no evidence pointing towards falsifying it, nor any viable theories for what a "level of computational power" that exceeds this hypothetical maximum would look like.

And, yes, if that hypothesis holds, then life is equivalent, to the point of at least being indistinguishable from when observed from the outside, computation.

A lot of people get upset at this, because they want life to be special, and especially human thought. If they want to disprove this, a single example of humans computing a function that is outside the Turing computable would be a very significant blow to this hypothesis, and the notion of life as a computation (it wouldn't conclusively falsify it, as to do that you'd need to also disprove that there might we ways to extend computers to compute the set of newly discovered functions that can't be computed by a Turing machine, but it would be a very significant blow)

[failingforward]

Yes, the article appears to be a short excerpt from a book and probably loses a lot of context because of that. I am interested in the questions raised by the author but will wait for the book to come out. The good news is that it appears the book will be open access - MIT Press seems to be encouraging this lately (at least by allowing this as an option for authors).

[aivuk]

You can find the full book here: https://whatisintelligence.antikythera.org/

[dandelionv1bes]

Oh great flag that it’s open access. Will give this a read.

[lawlessone]

> there's nothing resembling an argument, or even a definition of "computation."

"It's not even wrong" - Pauli

[esafak]

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

https://publicservicesalliance.org/2025/05/24/what-is-intell...

[bgwalter]

I felt reminded of Hofstadter's Goedel/Escher/Bach mysticism that somehow everything is recursion.

[AfterHIA]

I might not be a strange loop but I am indeed strange.

[emmelaich]

or the idea that the universe is a computer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Fredkin

[GoatOfAplomb]

In any case, he did fit that into a book! If only barely.

Edit: On further reflection, I suppose he didn't, if we consider the effort to span Gödel Escher Bach and I Am a Strange Loop.

[prmph]

Including free will

[anthk]

Self-simulation.