So, today, perhaps the image of the Universe as a computer is just the latest predictable extension of our habit of thought. Tomorrow, there may be a new paradigm. Science is most at home in attacking problems that require technique rather than insight. By technique we mean the systematic application of a sequential procedure - a recipe. The fact that this approach to the world so often bears fruit witnesses to the power of generalization.
Nature uses the same principle again and again in different situations.
The hallmark of these reapplications is their mathematical character. The search for the Theory of Everything is a quest for the technique whose application could decode the message of nature in every circumstance. But we know there must exist circumstances where mere technique will fail. There is no magic formula that can be called upon to generate all the possible varieties of these attributes. They are never fully exhaustible.