What is the computational nature of systems? For systems that are engineered by humans, Theory of Computation provides a formal framework for understanding the nature of a computing device, but it doesn’t seem to apply well to systems that arise from more natural learning algorithms, like via evolution or even backpropagation.

Computational Mechanics is an extension of Information Theory and Theory of Computation that is geared towards formalizing the computational nature of more natural systems. In this series we will go through the formalism, while also emphasizing the many conceptual and sometimes philosophical points found therein.