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SUMMARY:Simulation is All You Need - Phillip Honenberger
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UID:pretalx-iacap-2026-KGWHWV@pretalx.iacapconf.org
DESCRIPTION:Computers are simulators and computational technologies are si
 mulation technologies. These claims constitute my primary thesis\; they sp
 ecify necessary but not sufficient conditions for computers and computatio
 n. I argue for this thesis in two parts: articulation and defense of an ac
 count of _simulation_\; and articulation and defense of an account of _com
 putation_ on its basis. In dialogue with prior work\, I argue that all sim
 ulations have six features: they are representational\, interpreted\, dyna
 mic\, interactional\, virtual\, and subsistent. Whatever else computers an
 d computation are\, they must at least be simulators by the above definiti
 on\; else they would lack the semantic significance and user manipulabilit
 y that are signatures of computation and computational processes. I furthe
 r argue for this thesis “empirically” through consideration of computa
 tional architectures that might be thought non-simulational such as: (a) B
 abbage’s Difference Engine and Analytical Engine\; (b) Turing machines (
 “Turing computability”)\; (c) electronic calculators\; (d) robotics\; 
 and (e) humans considered as computers (e.g. the human profession of “co
 mputer” in the 1930s-50s\; the computational theory of mind). In a third
  and supplementary part\, I discuss what would need to be added to simulat
 ion to produce a sufficient definition of computation\, as well as some im
 plications of the main thesis if true.
LOCATION:Apollo Auditorium
URL:https://pretalx.iacapconf.org/iacap-2026/talk/KGWHWV/
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