Slides
Barry Cooper
How Does the World Compute?
In these slides, a rather broad concept of computation is introduced and shown to be central for many different areas of science and humanities, such as mathematics, physics, biology, neurosciences, and philosophy.
Zoé Christoff
Uncomputability and Logic
Zoé Christoff discusses Gödel's incompleteness theorems and their meaning from a philosopher's point of view. She also addresses several foundational issues in mathematics and some related uncomputability results.
Report
On the 5th of April, the SGSLPS held its Spring Meeting 2012 in Bern. It was devoted to computability and logic and brought together people from a wide range of disciplines. The day started with a tutorial given by Barry Cooper who focused on the notion of computation and covered a number of issues seminal to the topic that arise from Alan Turing's work. Built on numerous historical references drawn from his great knowledge of the field, his talk presented the broad concept of computation as central for a great deal of areas of science and humanities, notably mathematics, physics, biology, neurosciences, and philosophy. He finally gave the audience an insight on the hot topics and his views on the future development of this domain. During the lunch break, all the participants gathered around a home-cooked lunch prepared by the SGSLPS board. The workshop resumed with a talk by Zoé Christoff, dedicated to Gödel's incompleteness theorems. She discussed their meaning as well as their bearing on foundational issues in mathematics and presented some related uncomputability results from a philosopher's point of view. After receiving the Bernays Award 2011 from the president of the SSLPS, Thomas Strahm, Alessandro Facchini shared his reflexions on the intertwinement of logic and computer science, arguing on examples arising from his own research. Both the major involvement of the participants and their diverse backgrounds created a favourable atmosphere for high level interdisciplinary discussions. The evening concluded with a social dinner, that was the occasion for the speakers to share some thoughts and make some plans for future events and collaborations.