Computing by observing insertion

Abstract

Computing by Observing is a theoretical model for computation that tries to formalize the standard setup of experiments in natural sciences. We establish that insertion systems with empty contexts and only one inserted letter suffice in this architecture to accept all recursively enumerable languages. While so far in most cases context-free power was needed, here a sub-regular system leads to computational completeness in this context. Further, we investigate more complicated insertion systems in a model with less powerful observer called Observing Change. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.