The economy as a computer

Here's someone else taking an 'informational turn' - with the enthusiasm of a new convert. César Hidalgo, in an 'Opinion Interview' in the New Scientist ("The Human Race is a Computer" in the print edition, v227 n3029 pp 26-27, 11th July 2015 and online as Your nation’s economy is a computer running on social networks accessed 29 July)

Your nation’s economy is a computer running on social networks

This is reality not a metaphor, insists César Hidalgo. Welcome to the machine, and the social networks that power it.

"I’d been exploring the evolution of economies ... Then it struck me that I wasn’t really looking at the development of industries or culture but at something more fundamental. It didn’t matter if people were producing objects, music, messages… What people are producing is information"
[...]
"It’s not an analogy – it’s a reality. We’re producing physical order in the form of products, messages and cultural work. The universe tends towards increasing entropy, or disorder, but we’re reducing entropy locally by taking energy, mostly from oil and natural gas, and transforming it into physical order by doing collective computation."