Beyond the Digital Hegemony—
Intrinsic and Designed Computation:
Information Processing in Dynamical Systems

James P. Crutchfield

Complexity Sciences Center
Physics Department
University of California at Davis
Davis, California 95616 USA

William L. Ditto

Harrington Department of Bioengineering
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona 85287-9309 USA
Sudeshna Sinha

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)
Mohali, Transit Campus, MGSIPAP Complex, Sector 26
Chandigarh 160 019, India

ABSTRACT: How dynamical systems store and process information is a fundamental question that touches a remarkably wide set of contemporary issues: from the breakdown of Moore's scaling laws—that predicted the inexorable improvement in digital circuitry—to basic philosophical problems of pattern in the natural world. It is a question that also returns one to the earliest days of the foundations of dynamical systems theory, probability theory, mathematical logic, communication theory, and theoretical computer science. We introduce the broad and rather eclectic set of articles in this Focus Issue that highlights a range of current challenges in computing and dynamical systems.


James P. Crutchfield, W. Ditto, and S. Sinha, "Intrinsic and Designed Computation: Information Processing in Dynamical Systems—Beyond the Digital Hegemony", CHAOS 20:3 (2010) 0371010.
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Santa Fe Institute Working Paper: 10-11-025.
AIP CHAOS Special Issue.