Abstract

A modern computer can calculate many orders of magnitude faster and more accurately than humans. Not only do they reproduce with advantage human computational ability, they compute in the same way as we do --- i.e. a computation is typically viewed as an automatic manipulation of symbol structures, the same symbol structures that we would use, and manipulated in the same ways at the conceptual level. Non-programmed computation (NPC), or non-algorithmic computation, represents a radical departure from this otherwise universal of automatic computation. This paper introduces this computational alternative, gives examples of its use, and outlines an area of significant practical applicability --- the domain of `data-defined' problems. 1 Introduction There are many rather different ways to use computers to perform computations, but they all spring from a single notion: that of reproducing our conscious computational procedures within a physical device. The clear benefits that spring from t...

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