Phlogistic Computing

The practice of careful, deliberate control over the motions of soulfire for the purposes of computation. The structured engram responsible for abstracting such computation is referred to as a thought engine. It is sometimes thought that the brain encodes a thought engine of some kind.

Theory

Cellular Paradigm

The vast majority of phlogistic computing is based upon partitioning an arbitrary volume of a soul plane into autonomous cells, which typically are simple symbols formed into more complicated machinery. Each cell is often partitioned from its neighbors by a thin wall of flamescript, which the cell mutates in response to changes in its neighbors according to its programming.

Notably, one's choice of honeycomb for their cell structure is essential to what programs they are able to handle, in particular the number of faces an individual cell has, and thus how many connections. Beginners employ a simple cubic honeycomb with 6 faces, while general applications typically employ a rhombic dodecahedral with 12. Highly complex programs which require even more complicated cells might even require a bitruncated cubic, with 14.

Information Transfer

Information Storage

Applications

The theory finds itself applied to almost every conceivable field, but most notably those of computation and reckoning, of which there is a distinct difference between the two.

• Reckoning is the practice of developing one's internal capabilities; assembling a symbolic manipulator in the soul. These require intense mental discipline, but essentially no active soulfire production for results.
• Computing is the practice of constructing an external engine or engram. This requires a notable amount of external soulfire to replace that which is lost to combustion, but any given engram can be run by any individual with enough willpower, soulflow, and capacitance.

Architecture

Thought engines have two key advantages over mechanical computers: a lack of physical limitations like heat dissipation and signal noise, and a protean structure. This leads to many unique features, including volumetric circuitry, multiphasic memory, and true abstract simulation.

Given that all phlogistic computers operate based on unrestricted logic, they are capable of perfectly emulating any physical method of computing, except for true error. For example, a phlogistic computer is perfectly capable of running probabilistic algorithms that depend upon physical phenomenon, such as a common method of prime factorization.