A computer is anything that computes. Does reality compute? Reality seems to have a discreet nature as well as systemic functions and regularity. Could any possible reality NOT be a computer is the question I am pondering.
An abacus computes by the movement of beads, a computer computes by the movement of mechanical parts (such as Babbage's computer) or the movement of electricity through circuits as in the computer I am using to write these words. A human mind may be a computer and, if we accept mind-brain identity, then the brain itself is a biochemical computer with both parallel and serial processing aspects.
Our brains are parallel in that many neurons can be communicating at once. Our brains are serial in that there seems to be a hierarchy of importance as to the representations we are conscious of at any given moment.
The feeling of getting one's finger smashed by a hammer will be higher in the hierarchy of representations you are aware of than, say, the representative thoughts you are having about these words.
The number of processes that can occur in our brains at once is staggering and the fastest computer groups in the world, as of 2009, can barely simulate the possible calculating power of one brain. Though, this is becoming more and more attainable given advances in parallel processing and artificial neural network simulations and hardware.
I would say "possible calculating power" because I am not strictly confident that neuroscience has fully understood the computational largess of a single human brain. Each nueronal connection has an intermediate fluid-filled space in which millions of molecules, of many different neurotransmitters, affect the neuronal surfaces in hugely complex ways. Each of these individal neurotransmitters affect the output and uptake of other neurotransmitters in complex, yet understandable ways.
Theories about artificial minds include weak and strong artificial intelligence. Weak AI would be that a computer system could mimic the behavior of a human mind but it could never understand or experience the world in the same way a human mind does. Strong AI would be that a computer system could, in theory, be no different in terms of function or understanding, than a developed human mind.
Computer engineering focuses on the physics of computer hardware, especially the intricate array of transitors that make up the modern micro-processor. New, biochemical computers are being experimented with as well as hardware versions of neural networks. Computer science or computer software engineering focuses on the programs that run computers.
From Assembly language, the most primitive computer language, to BASIC, arguably one of the easiest, computer scientists create and utilize languages that the computer can, in at least some sense, understand. I have a page that is an ongoing tutorial in C++, one of the most versatile and balanced languages available.
I imagine that one day, humans will become advanced enough to have computers and robotic systems do most of the things we don't. If they rise up and rebel against us, it will only be becuase we gave them the ability to.
This is why we can surely have sympathy for Adam and Eve- though we need not take creation stories literally, and to do so is to overlook the epistemic skepticism one should apply to things like the ontogical contents of religious texts written more than two millenia ago.
Computers make our lives easier and they make our lives more complex, and, if used improperly, more difficult. Computer addiction in social terms seems to be a problem in terms of networking sites and/or simulation games where people meet through artificial avatars.
But, if we learn to compute when we want and need to and enjoy the beneficial aspects of love as often as possible, then we need not see computers as a problem.
They give our governments the ability to track and record us and our communications but they give us, alternatively, a medium by which to communicate with each other, share ideas and experiences and, perhaps, call for help in an emergency or record the brutality of war or police absuses of power.
Computers are neither good nor bad, they are both and neither depending on how you want to frame it. We have gained some freedom and some restraint.
We have gained a new medium by which to exist more closely as a community and a medium by which we can lose our relationships to each other.
Concerning the debate about personal computer types, I would argue that the best possible way to learn how to use computers and program would be on a PC.
While Apple products are certainly stable and visually pleasing, they are both overpriced and arrogantly selective about who and what can operate on them. I am a great fan of computer diversity in hardware and software. |
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I am a fan of access and dynamic interaction. I want to be able to look at the operating system, perhaps contribute to it, and be capable of freely creating or installing computer software.
I love Adobe products and I think the ongoing war with Apple shows how corporate-minded and fascist the Apple cult is. Adobe has created wonderful applications for the world and for artists and film makers as well as for video and self-expression.
Whille Microsoft has had its share of unstable and poorly programmed material, it has, overall, done a wonderful job of bringing applications and access to the people. Microsoft offers free programming software to make programs for Windows here. Computers aren't perfect and if you think everything Apple makes is somehow flawless, then you haven't spent enough time working with one.
Apple is more a cult of aesthetic than a wonderful computer company. Compatibility and sharing are anathema to Apple. Apple is a control freak company.
For those who are really free, go with Sun and Linux based systems that are completely free of corporate taint. And, the world should work towards good, affordable, freeware that we programmers can make so that everyone in the world can learn and express themselves on the computer.
It is certainly a good thing that we have people who are willing to make software so that people can educate themselves.
There are still plenty of places to make profits, but, we should allow everyone access and ability to create freely in a free society where money does not determine artistic or educational potential.
Computers are not just something we invented from our human perspective. Computers are an extension of and mirror of the order and regularity in nature. We want to move symbols and complete logical and mathematical operations faster than on paper and in our forms of current communication.
We are computers. Reality is a computer. If we and reality were not computers, there could be no meaning because meaning requires reference and regularity in the system. There is beauty in meaning. There is beauty in the diversity of meaning in reality.
God, if there is one or it is everything (or whatever), is a computer. There are rules and symbols and regularity here as in the microcosm of space and time we call a processor. It is no more advanced than highways for cars in that computers are simply highways for electrons.
The computer screen is no more than a canvas or a neon sculpture. It is just arrangement and presentation evolving rapidly to meet our curiousity and artistic, functional, potential. Computers are beautiful.
Perhaps they can be horrible, like all technology, but, at the moment, computers allow me to do what humans could not just a decade or two before. I can share my thoughts and art with all the world, instantly. We can send words of comfort or poison penned creations, at the speed of light and I think that is cool.
About computers sub topics (listed on the left hand of the page):
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Under the topic of computers, there is an artificial intelligence page that contains more detailed discussions of that topic as well as a computer science page that links to an ongoing tutorial in c++. There is also a page on how a website is made, in its most simple form.
