The Opposite of a Computer
10/19/2022 3:55 PM MST
philosophy
The definition of “Computer” from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer
A computer is a digital electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically.
Let’s break the definition down and figure out how to create its opposite. So a computer is a “digital electronic machine.” According to a quick search, the commonly accepted opposite of digital is analog. However, this doesn’t seem completely satisfactory to me as both are ordered systems. So whatever the opposite of a computer is must be disordered.
Nextly, computers “can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically”. So the opposite of a computer must not be able to be programmed, and whatever activity it does do must happen manually. Computers are also designed to be constructed as a physical object. Although most likely nothing physically constructed which is orderly can survive time, although in the case of a cold death perhaps objects could survive forever, but they couldn’t operate forever, so they would have no purpose. Computers certainly do have a purpose, however! At least they have one that is describable by humans. Also, computers cannot reproduce. They also require energy to operate.
Properties of the Opposite:
Disordered
Cannot be Programmed
Manual operation primarily
Unstructured
An event, not a construct
Has no describable purpose
Reproduces
Requires no energy to operate
Perhaps a sporting event is the opposite. It’s temporary and not meant to last forever. It’s structured but the activity is intrinsically disorderly to a certain extent as humans lack “perfect” control unlike a computer. Each person is in manual control of themselves, and even penalties are manual decisions even if they come from procedure. This seems like it’s getting closer, and obviously it seems obvious now that there could be many events that would fit this definition, of an ordered but intrinsically disordered, unprogrammable, and featuring primarily manual operation system.
However, there is still the glaring similarity here between computers and performance/competition events, which is that both are ordered systems. Noticing this now, I’ve updated the properties of the opposite above, so you’ll already have known this.
Perhaps nature is the opposite of the computer. It’s certainly disordered by nature, although strives for order. Although if that’s the case, then computers perhaps are striving for chaos, if they are the opposite of nature. Nature cannot be programmed at least not typically although it’s possible in lab settings. And of course, each living entity has its own “will” if not free will, but that’s another debate to unpack. Nature certainly seems like an event, with older theories of the big bang setting the spark and newer theories exploring metaverses or an infinite universe.
Nature also doesn’t have a describable purpose, at least by humans. Maybe it has one that can be personally accepted, but others cannot understand or refuse to. And animals, while their behavior can be described through long term observation, evolve similarly to humans. However, both computers and nature seem to require energy to operate. Animals must eat food to survive which is converted into glucose and oxygen which then becomes carbon dioxide and water.
So the last concern, the tough one, of requiring no energy to operate, must be addressed. Viruses appear to fit this definition. They may steal energy from a host cell, but they don’t require it to “operate” or move about the environment. Their movement, is clearly not automatic, but it may be mathematically describable; it’s the result of environment influences. Interestingly, computers can be infected by “viruses”. However while viruses’ behavior may appear to be unstructured, viruses do have an internal structure (both the biological and virtual ones.)
Perhaps radioactive material such as uranium is closer to lacking structure. It does emit radiation which is “completely random” according to sources such as https://www.miniphysics.com/randomness-of-radioactive-emissions.html However from searching online it appears that uranium which is radioactive contains an abundance of green crystals typically. This may be fantasy however, as I’m sure that the nature of enriched uranium is a well kept secret, for good reason.
What is something which lacks structure completely and has all of the other properties? Perhaps it is some undiscovered or unknown virus. Or maybe if one is being more speculative, one could say it’s even an irrational God of some sort. Perhaps even a chain reaction is close to fitting the description. The reaction consumes energy, is triggered manually somehow, it “reproduces” as it consumes the fuel source, it’s disordered, and cannot be programmed once triggered. At least not perfectly.
What does this extrapolation of the opposite of a computer invoke? I think it hints that the opposite can exist in any system. It also hints perhaps that humans have some similarities to viruses. We certainly latch onto our environment, leeching energy and resources from it. However, we put back resources and energy into the environment, for the primary purpose of course to replicate. Some people have “transcended” this biological programming and found peace in solitude or with a non-producing partner.
What does this adventure reveal? Perhaps that wisdom paradoxically truly is acquired by relinquishing it. As the philosophers like to say: "I know that I know nothing".