title: Computational capabilities of physical systems.
abstract: In this paper strong limits on the accuracy of real-world physical computation are established. To derive these results a non-Turing machine formulation of physical computation is used. First it is proven that there cannot be a physical computer C to which one can pose any and all computational tasks concerning the physical universe. Next it is proven that no physical computer C can correctly carry out every computational task in the subset of such tasks that could potentially be posed to C. This means in particular that there cannot be a physical computer that can be assured of correctly "processing information faster than the universe does." Because this result holds independent of how or if the computer is physically coupled to the rest of the universe, it also means that there cannot exist an infallible, general-purpose observation apparatus, nor an infallible, general-purpose control apparatus. These results do not rely on systems that are infinite, and/or nonclassical, and/or obey chaotic dynamics. They also hold even if one could use an infinitely fast, infinitely dense computer, with computational powers greater than that of a Turing machine (TM). After deriving these results analogs of the TM Halting theorem are derived for the novel kind of computer considered in this paper, as are results concerning the (im)possibility of certain kinds of error-correcting codes. In addition, an analog of algorithmic information complexity, "prediction complexity," is elaborated. A task-independent bound is derived on how much the prediction complexity of a computational task can differ for two different reference universal physical computers used to solve that task. This is analogous to the "encoding" bound governing how much the algorithm information complexity of a TM calculation can differ for two reference universal TMs. It is proven that either the Hamiltonian of our universe proscribes a certain type of computation, or prediction complexity is unique (unlike algorithmic information complexity). Finally, the implications of this analysis for the issue of whether the universe "is" a computer are briefly discussed.
authors.affiliation: NASA Ames Research Center, N269-1, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA. dhw@ptolemy.arc.nasa.gov
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Wolpert