{"pk":31722,"title":"Apparent Computational Complexity in Physical Systems","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Many researchers in AI and Cognitive Science believe\nthat the information processing complexity of a mecha-\nnism is reflected in the complexity of a description of its\nbehavior. In this paper, w e distinguish two types of com-\nplexity and demonstrate that neither one can be an\nobjective property of the underlying physical system. A\nshift in the method or granularity of observation can\ncause a system's behavioral description to change in\nboth the number of apparent states and the complexity\nclass. These examples demonstrate h o w the act of obser-\nvation itself can suggest frivolous explanations of physi-\ncal phenomena, up to and including computation.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Submitted Presentations","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1fk027xh","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"John","middle_name":"F.","last_name":"Kolen","name_suffix":"","institution":"The Ohio State University","department":""},{"first_name":"Jordan","middle_name":"B.","last_name":"Pollack","name_suffix":"","institution":"The Ohio State University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"1993-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/31722/galley/22790/download/"}]}