Comment by Antibabelic

You are making the false assumption that if output can be inferred from structure, the converse is true as well. Similarity in behaviour does not in any way, shape or form imply structural similarity. The boy scout, the migrating swallow, the foraging bee, and the mobile robot are good at orienteering. Do they achieve this goal in a similar manner? Not really.

Re: "I'm baffled that someone in CS, a field ruled by applied abstraction, has to be explained over and over again that abstraction is a thing that exists". Computer science deals with models of computation. You are making a classic mistake in confusing models for the real things they are capable of modelling.