Instructor: Prof. Jason Hartline
Monday: history, evolution, genetics, societies, the brain, digital computers.
Wednesday: theory of computation, universality, duality, Turing machines, halting problem.

Discussion Questions:

• What is the difference between a universal computer and a non-universal computer? Give examples of each. Are you a universal computer? Is your smartphone a universal computer? Is your wristwatch a universal computer?
• If you are a computer and your smartphone is a universal computer, how come your smartphone cannot simulate you?
• Are there limits to what computer can compute?
• What is the relationship between computer programs, computer simulations, and universal computation?
• What is duality and what does it mean to run a computer program with another computer program as its input?

• What is a computer? (Is a wristwatch a computer? Is a school of fish a computer? Is your smart (or dumb) phone a computer? Are you a computer?)
• What is computation? (Is keeping time a computation? Is avoiding being eaten by sharks a computation? Is looking up a number in your address book a computation? Is reading and understanding this question a computation?)
• What is not computation? What is not a computer?
• What are other academic fields where computation may play a central role?
• What is ‘computational thinking’?

Readings and Media: