Computation and its Limits

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Paul Cockshott (Reader, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow) Lewis M Mackenzie (Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow)

Computation and its Limits

Paul Cockshott (Reader, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow), Lewis M Mackenzie (Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow), Gregory Michaelson (Professor of Computing Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)

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English

Oxford University Press
05 May 2015

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Physics; Computer science; Mathematical theory of computation

Computation and its Limits is an innovative cross-disciplinary investigation of the relationship between computing and physical reality. It begins by exploring the mystery of why mathematics is so effective in science and seeks to explain this in terms of the modelling of one part of physical reality by another. Going from the origins of counting to the most blue-skies proposals for novel methods of computation, the authors investigate the extent to which the laws of nature and of logic constrain what we can compute. In the process they examine formal computability, the thermodynamics of computation, and the promise of quantum computing.

By: Paul Cockshott (Reader Department of Computing Science University of Glasgow), Lewis M Mackenzie (Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow), Gregory Michaelson (Professor of Computing Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 244mm, Width: 188mm, Spine: 12mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780198729129
ISBN 10: 019872912X
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 05 May 2015
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Greg Michaelson studied Computer Science at the University of Essex and the University of St Andrews, working as a real-time programmer at Scottish Gas in between. He then taught at Napier College and the University of Glasgow, before joining Heriot-Watt University in 1983, where he gained his PhD. He was Head of Computer Science from 2003-8 and promoted to Professor in 2006. Dr Michaelson's research interests encompass formally motivated computing, in particular the design, implementation, and analysis of programming languages for multi-process systems. He published his first novel in 2008.

Reviews for Computation and its Limits

Mathematics, computer science, physics - and even biology - are now beginning to converge. This delightful book, beautifully illustrated, shows the physics of computation and the theory of computation as two sides of the same coin. We are witnessing a paradigm shift, the birth of a fruitful new interdisciplinary point of view. Gregory Chaitin, author of Proving Darwin: Making Biology Mathematical This book provides a unique and important presentation of the factors that have, do, and will limit the science of computation. A most stimulating, scholarly, and entertaining synthesis of history, logic, mathematics, and science. Stephen Barnett, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK