---
title: "Computationalism · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/computationalism
description: "Computationalism is the view that cognition is a form of computation, and that a mind is, in the relevant sense, a computing system."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Simulation hypothesis

# Computationalism

Definition

Computationalism is the view that cognition is a form of computation, and that a mind is, in the relevant sense, a computing system.

On this site

The Mind model dial measures, in FLOPS, the computing that would run a mind. That only means something if computationalism is at least a reasonable working assumption.

Role in the model

Measuring a mind in floating-point operations is a computationalist commitment. If cognition isn’t computation, the Mind total measures the wrong thing. The site states the assumption out loud. The other choice is to leave minds out of the total, and that’s a bigger assumption dressed up as caution.

Related

[Substrate independence](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/substrate-independence)[Functionalism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/functionalism)[Whole-brain emulation](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/whole-brain-emulation)

In the trees

[Universal machine · Technology](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/technology?n=turing)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)