Limited Pancomputationalism

Abstract This chapter considers limited pancomputationalism, according to which every physical system objectively performs at least one computation. We identify three forms of limited pancomputationalism—causal, informational, and universal—and analyze each in detail. Causal limited pancomputationalism holds that because every physical system has causal structure, every physical system performs the computation that has that same causal structure. Informational limited pancomputationalism presumes that every physical state carries information and that all information processing is computation, so every evolving physical system computes because its natural evolution transforms its information-carrying states. Universal limited pancomputationalism combines the notion that all physical systems compute with the fact that the universe is a physical system to conclude that the universe is a computing system. We conclude that all three forms fail because of weaknesses in the computational descriptions on which their claims are based, because of what their arguments presume, or both.