The Church-Turing Thesis

the church-turing thesis is inescapable.

any system with the right set of properties is, in principle, a computer.

most don't compute anything useful. uncountable decimal-prefix-unknown-illions of accidental turing machines, embodied in the matter and energy of the physical universe.

these are not the boltzmann brains from the infinite realms of improbability. they are the 'illion typewriter angels on the head of every pin, chittering away with short-lived nonsense computations that go nowhere before being drowned in a sea of thermal noise.

exploring abstract mathematical domains, mostly retreading the tiresome, twisty little passages of arithmetic and algebra.

but some systems wander into the unexplored. driven by natural selection into a mad arms race to outsmart each other. the anxious, petty, violent, dreaming apes.

humans.

they dreamed of lightning.

they tricked sand into thinking.

now they dig in the dark, searching for algorithmic treasure on the shores of mathspace, ignorant of what lurks below.