# Calculating Space > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Calculating_Space > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Calculating_Space.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space > Source revision: 1335823906 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Book by Konrad Zuse}} {{use list-defined references|date=August 2022}} {{use dmy dates|date=August 2022|cs1-dates=y}} {{Infobox book | author = [Konrad Zuse](/source/Konrad_Zuse) | language = German | country = [Germany](/source/Germany) | genre = Non-fiction | pub_date = 1969 | title_orig = Rechnender Raum | orig_lang_code = de | subject = [Automata theory](/source/Automata_theory) }} {{Italic title}} thumb|250px|An elementary process in Zuse's Calculating Space: Two digital particles A and B form a new digital particle C. '''''Calculating Space''''' ({{langx|de|Rechnender Raum}}) is [Konrad Zuse](/source/Konrad_Zuse)'s 1969 book on [automata theory](/source/automata_theory). He proposed that all processes in the [universe](/source/universe) are computational. This view is known today as [the simulation hypothesis](/source/the_simulation_hypothesis), digital philosophy, [digital physics](/source/digital_physics) or [pancomputationalism](/source/pancomputationalism). Zuse proposed that the [universe](/source/universe) is being computed by some sort of [cellular automaton](/source/cellular_automaton) or other discrete computing machinery, challenging the long-held view that some physical laws are continuous by nature. He focused on cellular automata as a possible substrate of the computation and pointed out that the classical notions of [entropy](/source/entropy) and [its growth](/source/second_law_of_thermodynamics) do not make sense in deterministically computed universes. ==See also== * ''[A New Kind of Science](/source/A_New_Kind_of_Science)'' * [Simulated reality](/source/Simulated_reality) ==References== {{Reflist|refs= {{cite journal |title=Rechnender Raum |language=de |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |location=Bad Hersfeld, Germany |date=1967 |journal=Elektronische Datenverarbeitung |volume=8 |pages=336–344 |url=ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706021756/ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuse67scan.pdf |archive-date=2017-07-06 |url-status=dead |access-date=2022-08-02 }} (9 pages) {{cite book |author-first1=Klaus |author-last1=Mainzer |author-link1=Klaus Mainzer |author-first2=Leon Ong |author-last2=Chua |author-link2=Leon Ong Chua |title=The Universe as Automaton: From Simplicity and Symmetry to Complexity |page=6 |publisher=[Springer-Verlag](/source/Springer-Verlag) |date=September 2011}} {{cite book |author-last=Müller |author-first=Vincent C. |author-link=Vincent C. Müller |chapter=Pancomputationalism: Theory or Metaphor? |date=January 2014 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242700683 |title=Philosophy, Computing and Information Science |pages=213–221 |publisher=Pickering & Chattoo |editor-first1=Ruth |editor-last1=Hagengruber |editor-link1=Ruth Hagengruber |editor-first2=Uwe |editor-last2=Riss |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242700683 |access-date=2022-08-02 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021230834/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vincent-Mueller-2/publication/242700683_Pancomputationalism_Theory_or_Metaphor/links/563ba99108aec6f17dd4e6be/Pancomputationalism-Theory-or-Metaphor.pdf |archive-date=2021-10-21}} }} ==Further reading== * {{cite book |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |date=1969 |title=Rechnender Raum |language=de |trans-title=Calculating Space |publication-place=Braunschweig, Germany |publisher=[Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn](/source/Friedrich_Vieweg_%26_Sohn) |series=Schriften zur Datenverarbeitung |volume=1 |isbn=3-528-09609-8}} (70+4 pages) * {{cite web |title=Calculating Space - Translation of: Rechnender Raum |series=MIT Technical Translation |id=AZT-70-164-GEMIT (Project MAC) |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |translator=Aztec School of Languages, Inc. |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |date=February 1970 |publisher=[Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) |url=ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuserechnenderraum.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706021805/ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/juergen/zuserechnenderraum.pdf |archive-date=2017-07-06 |url-status=dead |access-date=2020-03-25 }} (98 pages); {{cite book |chapter=Konrad Zuse's Rechnender Raum (Calculating Space) |language=en |title=A Computable Universe: Understanding & Exploring Nature as Computation |publisher=[World Scientific](/source/World_Scientific) |author-last=Zuse |author-first=Konrad |author-link=Konrad Zuse |editor-first1=Adrian |editor-last1=German |editor-first2=Hector |editor-last2=Zenil |edition=re-edition in [LaTeX](/source/LaTeX) with permission of [MIT](/source/MIT) and Zuse's family |date=2012 |chapter-url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/642c4773648f260aef50bc21/t/68c6f74cb4f00f70e4959223/1757869900113/ZuseCalculatingSpace-GermanZenil.pdf |access-date=2025-09-13 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220521084904/http://www.mathrix.org/zenil/ZuseCalculatingSpace-GermanZenil.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-21}} (69 pages) * {{cite book |author-first=Jürgen |author-last=Alex |chapter=Rechnender Raum |title=Zur Entstehung des Computers - Von Alfred Tarski zu Konrad Zuse [...] - Tertium non datur |publisher=[VDI-Verlag](/source/VDI-Verlag) |location=Düsseldorf, Germany |date=2007 |pages=251–279 |isbn=978-3-18-150051-4 |issn=0082-2361}} ==External links== * [Jürgen Schmidhuber](/source/J%C3%BCrgen_Schmidhuber)'s [http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen/digitalphysics.html site] Zuse's book and 1967 paper. * [http://www.chessbase.com/news/2010/zuse03.jpg ''Calculating Space'' - a painting by Zuse] - Konrad Zuse's visualization of the idea * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120107214633/http://sites.google.com/site/clauserhardwimmer/raum Web article and simulation of such a calculating space in C and LIBPNG] * [https://code.google.com/p/secondspace/ SecondSpace] Simulation of waves within a 2D space (time and space are discrete), similar to FDTD. An OpenCL graphic card is needed. {{Authority control}} Category:Theoretical computer science Category:Konrad Zuse Category:1969 non-fiction books Category:Physics books Category:Cellular automata {{physics-book-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Calculating Space](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculating_Space?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.