I would like to understand if any and all physical processes taking place, necessarily imply computations are also taking place.
As a motivating scenario for the question, consider the following:
Around some distant star in a some faraway godforsaken galaxy, exists a boring gas cloud. Here, two protons careen towards each other on an inevitable collision course. The protons' repel each other, and their trajectories inevitably change and off they go.
Has a computation taken place?
No, not according to any definition of computation you will find in a well known dictionary. One might compute the trajectory of the two protons, but the protons themselves perform no calculation- they simply respond to forces.
The universe is real. it contains things like rocks.
Physics exists only in the mind. It contains things like mathematics. Physics is a model of the universe. You can do calculations to predict the outcome of an experiment or something else going on in the universe. This is why calculations are useful.
The universe itself plays out without calculations. (Unless you want to count how a computer or brain plays out.) There is no calculation in the trajectory of a rock. The trajectory just happens as a response to forces.
