论文标题
探索“计算”的景观:数字,神经形态,非常规 -
Exploring the landscapes of "computing": digital, neuromorphic, unconventional -- and beyond
论文作者
论文摘要
数字计算技术的加速竞赛似乎正在朝向障碍物(技术,经济和环境),这种疾病刺激了替代性“神经形态”(类似脑)计算技术的研究工作。此外,从几十年来,将非线性物理现象“直接”“直接”用于非数字计算的想法已被以“非常规计算”,“自然计算”,“物理计算”或“物体计算”等名称进行了探索。与计算机科学的其他领域相比,这已经发生在小众市场中。在本文中,我基于如何开发“计算”的一般概念,包括数字,神经形态,非常规和可能的未来计算“计算”范式。本文的主要贡献是对“计算”现有形式概念化的广泛调查。调查检查方法植根于三种不同类型的背景数学:离散符号形式主义,概率建模和动态系统的视图。事实证明,背景数学的不同选择会导致对“计算”是什么是果断地不同的理解。在所有这些多样性中,可以蒸馏出用于“计算”的统一坐标系。在这些坐标中,我为未来计算工程学科的基本形式理论定位锚点,其中包括但将超越数字和神经形态计算。
The acceleration race of digital computing technologies seems to be steering toward impasses -- technological, economical and environmental -- a condition that has spurred research efforts in alternative, "neuromorphic" (brain-like) computing technologies. Furthermore, since decades the idea of exploiting nonlinear physical phenomena "directly" for non-digital computing has been explored under names like "unconventional computing", "natural computing", "physical computing", or "in-materio computing". This has been taking place in niches which are small compared to other sectors of computer science. In this paper I stake out the grounds of how a general concept of "computing" can be developed which comprises digital, neuromorphic, unconventional and possible future "computing" paradigms. The main contribution of this paper is a wide-scope survey of existing formal conceptualizations of "computing". The survey inspects approaches rooted in three different kinds of background mathematics: discrete-symbolic formalisms, probabilistic modeling, and dynamical-systems oriented views. It turns out that different choices of background mathematics lead to decisively different understandings of what "computing" is. Across all of this diversity, a unifying coordinate system for theorizing about "computing" can be distilled. Within these coordinates I locate anchor points for a foundational formal theory of a future computing-engineering discipline that includes, but will reach beyond, digital and neuromorphic computing.