Computing the Universe

Computer science has gone far beyond its traditional role of solving real world problems by computer. Over the last 80 years, computer scientists have developed a novel, algorithmic way of understanding the capabilities and limitations of computers that has proven valuable to contemplating important and deep problems in the sciences. This talk will review how recent computational insights have changed the way we think about the quantum nature of the universe, the puzzle of phase transitions, the prediction of rational behavior in economics, and even the Darwinian evolution of a species.