Physics-Native Computational Architectures

WHY DO WE NEED A COMPUTER? WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO WITH IT? WHY A VON NEUMANN/DIGITAL/ELECTRONIC COMPUTER? WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES? WHICH CAN BE COMMERCIALLY MANUFACTURED USING EXISTING TECHNOLOGY? uSING OSCILLATORS, ELECTRONICS, PHOTONICS, PHONONICS? ALL OF THE ABOVE? SOMETHING ELSE (E.G. ANALOG BABBAGE MACHINE)? WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO OPTIMIZE? AND FOR WHAT? hOW ARE THESE DIFFERENT ALTERNATIVES/HYBRIDS DIFFERENT FROM THE STATUS QUO VON NEUMANN/DIGITAL COMPUTATION? AND WHAT CAN THEY COMPUTE? WHAT'S OPPOSITE OF BRUTE FORCE, GRADIENT DESCENT? WHICH WAS TURING'S ENIGMA ENCRYPTION DECODING MACHINES? WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED SINCE THEN? IF THOSE ANALOG MACHINES COULD DECRYPT COMMUNICATION THEN A SIMILAR MACHINE IS A GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER CAPABLE OF EXECUTING ANY CODE? SO ANY MACHINE THAT CAN DECRYPT IS ALSO A GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER? WHAT IS A PHASE CHANGE IN THIS CONTEXT? WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL TOPOLOGIC COMPUTING? IS IT RESONANT? IS IT QUANTUM? WHY DIDN'T THE PARAMETRON CATCH ON? AND WHY DON'T WE USE QUARTZ OSCILLATORS FOR GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTING?