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is dropping an apple solving a computation about gravity, or does the computation exist as an abstract separate from the physical forces it describes?

The idea that fluid is solving the Navier-Stokes equation seems like an obvious error to me - it cannot solve the equation, it simply acts a fluid, which the equation was designed to approximate.

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> The idea that fluid is solving the Navier-Stokes equation seems like an obvious error to me - it cannot solve the equation, it simply acts a fluid, which the equation was designed to approximate.

that's his "Principle of Computational Equivalence", that natural processes are themselves computations. it's easy to see this is true in a "made-up" universe, say Game of Life, but whether our universe is computational is still an open question I think.

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