Interview: Is Everything a Computation?

Abstract

The interview of Andrew Schumann, the managing editor of Studia Humana, with Andy Adamatzky, Professor in Unconventional Computing in the Department of Computer Science, University of the West of England, Bristol, amir of the Unconventional Computing Centre, and a member of Bristol Robotics Lab.

Andrew Schumann: What is unconventional computing? How does it differ from other approaches to computation?

Andy Adamatzky: Usually, in answering this question I could not resist quoting Tomasso Toffoli: “... a computing scheme that today is viewed as unconventional may well be so because its time hasn’t come yet — or is already gone.” This means that everything flows and nothing stays the same, e.g. at the time of analogue computers digital ones were considered unconventional, but nowadays they top the charts of modern unconventional computing devices.