BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:ILLC Website X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/Amsterdam BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Amsterdam X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Amsterdam BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19700329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19701025T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:/NewsandEvents/Archives/2008/newsitem/2481/31- October---2-November-2008-What-is-computation-How- does-nature-compute-2008-Midwest-NKS-Conference-Bl oomington-USA DTSTAMP:20080827T000000 SUMMARY:"What is computation? (How) does nature co mpute?", 2008 Midwest NKS Conference, Bloomington , USA DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20081031 DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20081102 LOCATION:Bloomington, USA DESCRIPTION:In 1964, in one of the six Messenger l ectures he delivered at Cornell University, Richar d Feynman said: "It always bothers me that, accord ing to the laws as we understand them today, it ta kes a computing machine an infinite number of logi cal operations to figure out what goes on in no ma tter how tiny a region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time ... So I have often made th e hypothesis that ultimately physics will not requ ire a mathematical statement, that in the end the machinery will be revealed, and the laws will turn out to be simple, like the chequer board with all its apparent complexities." The topic of the co nference has been chosen with this quote in mind. The conference will host a most distinguished grou p of scientists supporting different views of a co mputable universe, from those supporting the thesi s that Nature performs (only) digital computation and does it up to a maximal level, to those suppor ting the thesis of nature as a quantum computer. S ome strongly suggest however that the true nature of Nature can be only explained by the study of ra ndomness. Randomness however preserves its mysteri ous reputation, for some of these authors it seems that randomness can be generated deterministicall y in the classical sense, while others claim the e xistence of "true" randomness from the principles underlying quantum mechanics necessarily to explai n the complexity seen around. This event will beco me the place of confluence in which all these view s will be presented, discussed and analyzed by the guests and the conference participants themselves . After presenting their views during the first th ree days of the conference, the keynote speakers w ill then participate in a round table discussion o n the topic. For more information, see http://ww w.cs.indiana.edu/~dgerman/2008midwestNKSconference /. X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\n

In 1964, i n one of the six Messenger lectures he delivered a t\n Cornell University, Richard Feynman said: "It\n always bothers me that, according to the laws as we understand\n them today, i t takes a computing machine an infinite number of\ n logical operations to figure out what goes on in no matter how\n tiny a region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time\n .. . So I have often made the hypothesis that ultimat ely physics\n will not require a mathematical statement, that in the end the\n machinery w ill be revealed, and the laws will turn out to be\ n simple, like the chequer board with all its apparent\n complexities."\n

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The topic of the conference has been chos en with this quote\n in mind. The conference will host a most distinguished group of\n sci entists supporting different views of a computable universe,\n from those supporting the thesis that Nature performs (only)\n digital comput ation and does it up to a maximal level, to those\ n supporting the thesis of nature as a quantu m computer. Some\n strongly suggest however t hat the true nature of Nature can be\n only e xplained by the study of randomness. Randomness ho wever\n preserves its mysterious reputation, for some of these authors\n it seems that ran domness can be generated deterministically in\n the classical sense, while others claim the exi stence of\n "true" randomness from the principles underlying\n quantum mechanics necessarily to explain the complexity seen\n around. This event will become the place of confl uence in which\n all these views will be pres ented, discussed and analyzed by the\n guests and the conference participants themselves. After \n presenting their views during the first th ree days of the\n conference, the keynote spe akers will then participate in a\n round tabl e discussion on the topic.\n

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For more information, see\n http://www.cs.indiana.e du/~dgerman/2008midwestNKSconference/.\n

\n URL:/NewsandEvents/Archives/2008/newsitem/2481/31- October---2-November-2008-What-is-computation-How- does-nature-compute-2008-Midwest-NKS-Conference-Bl oomington-USA END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR