Calcolabilità e leggi fisiche

The paper analyzes the relation between the abstract notion of computability and the nature of physical laws that the effective realization of a computable process must obey. The aims of the paper are three. First, a defence of the idea according to which the formulation of the Church-Turing thesis actually corresponds to the formulation of a specific axiomatic system for computation. Second, a defence of the original Turing approach against the charge of not paying sufficient attention to the physical features of computation. Third, the analysis of the central role that David Deutsch – one of the founders of the quantum theory of computability – attributes to the notion of simulation concerning physical systems. This allows a critical discussion of those approaches that provide a “computational” interpretation of some fundamental physical laws.