[ssdfsdf]

I often wonder if there is some notion of a basis of computation in mathematics. You can do stuff in binary, trinary, what about further out systems? What about working with functions/mappings which take more than two inputs. What can be said about the expressive power of these different ways of computing? Any one know where I should be looking for this kind of stuff?

[arethuza]

Describing computation in mathematical terms is arguably the core of Computer Science as a subject - particularly the "Theory of Computation":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_computation

If you are interested in "functions/mappings" then you can look at Lambda Calculus and work your way right up to modern functional programming languages:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculus

[ssdfsdf]

I'm reasonably well versed in these topics, I found them unsatisfying, they don't capture the essence for me. I don't really know what I'm looking for I just know I haven't seen it yet.