Natural Algorithms

I explore simple natural physical systems that exhibit useful, interesting computational effects. I view such physical systems as specialized ¿computers¿/natural¿computers. These natural¿computers (physical systems), as they evolve in phase space, can be seen as performing a computation or executing a natural algorithm to solve a specific problem. In particular, I consider physical systems that apparently ¿solve¿ problems that are hard to solve by using conventional computers. I view the physical systems themselves¿not their numerical simulations¿as computers. I discuss three main ideas: A gravity powered ¿computer¿¿constructed out of beads and rods of an abacus¿that can perform data processing tasks like sorting, searching, etc. on an unsorted database; Bilateral Computing paradigm for the construction of natural physical computing devices, whose operation blurs the distinction between computing and inverting a mathematical function; Balance Machine, a generic natural computational model that is shown to be computationally universal.