You've seen the post. It’s usually a blurry screenshot or a rapid-fire Twitter thread that starts with something mundane—like a rock or a beehive—and ends with the absolute conviction that it’s actually a CPU. It's the everything is computer meme, and honestly, it’s one of those internet rabbit holes that actually makes more sense the deeper you go. It isn't just a joke for programmers who’ve had too much caffeine. It’s a legitimate, albeit weird, way of looking at the universe through the lens of information theory.
If you spend enough time in "Tech Twitter" or certain corners of Reddit, you’ll see people claiming that a bowl of water is a computer because it "calculates" ripples. Or that a tree is a computer because it "processes" sunlight into wood. It sounds like stoner logic. But the meme has legs because it’s based on some heavy-duty science from guys like Claude Shannon and Stephen Wolfram.
Why the Everything is Computer Meme is Taking Over Your Feed
The meme basically functions as a "reductio ad absurdum" of modern technology. We live in a world where your fridge has an IP address and your toaster wants to join your Wi-Fi. It was only a matter of time before we started looking at the physical world and asking, "Hey, does this have a logic gate?"
Most versions of the meme follow a specific pattern. They take a non-digital object and map its physical properties onto computer architecture. Take the "Slide Rule" or even a "Water Integrator." These were real things. In 1936, Vladimir Lukyanov built a computer made of pipes and pumps to solve differential equations. When you see a meme claiming a toilet is a computer because it has a binary state (flush or no flush), it’s a direct nod to this history of analog computing.
Computers aren't just silicon chips. That’s the core realization.
A computer is, at its most basic, anything that takes an input, follows a set of rules (an algorithm), and produces an output. If you kick a ball, the physics of the ball "calculates" the trajectory based on the force of your foot. Is the ball a computer? According to the everything is computer meme, yeah, kind of. This perspective is known as Pancomputationalism. It’s the idea that the universe itself is a giant machine churning through data.
The Difference Between Your Laptop and a Rock
Kinda weird to think about, right?
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The meme usually plays with the "Hard vs. Soft" distinction. Your MacBook is a "Universal Turing Machine." It can be programmed to do anything—edit a video, simulate a flight, or play Minesweeper. A rock is a "Single-Purpose Computer." It’s really, really good at calculating "How to be a rock." It processes gravity, erosion, and thermal expansion with 100% accuracy. It just doesn't have a UI.
Pancomputationalism: The Real Science Behind the Joke
We can’t talk about the everything is computer meme without mentioning Stephen Wolfram. His book, A New Kind of Science, is basically the Bible for this movement. Wolfram argues that simple rules can create incredibly complex systems. He looks at cellular automata—think "Conway's Game of Life"—and suggests that the entire cosmos might just be a very complex version of these simple rules.
- Input: Initial conditions of the big bang.
- Processing: Laws of physics.
- Output: You reading this on your phone.
When people meme about a "forest being a decentralized network," they are referencing actual biological research. Mycelium networks (fungi) literally pass chemical signals between trees to share resources. It’s an organic internet. Is it a computer? If it processes information to make a "decision" about where to send nutrients, the meme says yes.
The "Everything is a Drum" Connection
If this feels familiar, it’s because it shares DNA with the "Everything is a Drum" sketch from Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun. In that sketch, a character insists that every object he hits is a drum. The everything is computer meme is the high-IQ, nerdy cousin of that joke.
Instead of hitting things to make a sound, people are "pinging" objects to see how they handle information.
"Look at this ant colony. It’s just a biological processor calculating the shortest path to a dropped Cheeto."
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That’s the vibe. It’s cynical, it’s smart, and it’s slightly existential. It reduces the majesty of nature to a series of 1s and 0s. For some, that’s depressing. For the people making the memes, it’s a way to make sense of a chaotic world. If everything is a computer, then everything follows rules. And if everything follows rules, maybe we can eventually debug it.
Digital Physics and the "Simulation Theory" Link
You can't get away from the simulation theory here. If the universe is a computer, who is the admin?
The everything is computer meme often overlaps with the idea that we are living in a simulation. Figures like Elon Musk and Nick Bostrom have pushed this into the mainstream. The meme acts as a "gateway drug" to these theories. Once you start seeing a beehive as a "hexagonal data storage array," you’re only one step away from wondering if the sky is just a very high-resolution skybox.
The sheer scale of the information processing in a single gram of DNA is staggering. DNA stores data. It replicates data. It has error-correction protocols. It is, by every technical definition, a biological hard drive. When the meme points this out, it isn't lying. It’s just stripping away the "nature" labels and replacing them with "tech" labels.
How to Spot a "Computer" in the Wild
So, how do you participate in this? It’s about changing your perspective. You have to look at the world as a series of states.
- Identify the Input: What starts the process? (Rain hitting a roof).
- Identify the Logic: How does the system react? (The pitch of the roof determines where the water flows).
- Identify the Output: What is the result? (The water gathers in the gutter).
Congratulations. You just turned a roof into an analog fluidic computer.
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This line of thinking is actually useful in fields like biomimicry. Engineers look at how "nature computes" to build more efficient systems. The "Slime Mold Computer" is a famous example. Researchers found that slime mold could "calculate" the most efficient routes for the Tokyo railway system faster than a traditional computer just by growing toward food sources.
The meme is funny because it’s true. It’s also funny because it’s a bit of a reach. The tension between those two things—scientific fact and absurd oversimplification—is where the humor lives.
Actionable Insights for the Digitally Curious
If you want to dive deeper into the rabbit hole of the everything is computer meme, don't just scroll through Twitter. Start looking at the logic underlying the things you interact with daily.
Study Cellular Automata
Check out "Rule 30" or "Conway’s Game of Life." It’s the visual proof that simple "if/then" statements can create shapes and behaviors that look "alive." This is the foundation of the idea that complex life is just a byproduct of simple computation.
Read "A New Kind of Science" (or the summary)
Stephen Wolfram’s work is dense, but it’s the intellectual backbone of the "Everything is a Computation" worldview. It will give you the vocabulary to understand why people think a snowflake is a "recursive algorithm."
Look into Analog Computing
We are so used to digital (0 and 1) that we forget you can compute with continuous signals. Understanding how water, gears, or electricity can "calculate" without a CPU will change how you see the physical world.
Deconstruct Biological Systems
The next time you look at a plant, don't just see a leaf. See a solar panel with a built-in energy storage system and a self-repairing nanotech skin. This shift in perspective is the heart of the meme culture.
The universe doesn't have a "Help" desk, and there’s no "Undo" button, but viewing it as a massive, interconnected computational system might be the most accurate way to describe our reality in the 21st century. Whether it's a joke or a profound scientific truth, the everything is computer meme isn't going away—it’s just waiting for the next system update.