Re: Can you find anything wrong with this solution to the Halting Problem?

From: Sander Bruggink (bruggink.at.phil.uu.nl_at_no.spam.please)
Date: 07/14/04 

Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 11:16:21 +0200

Peter Olcott wrote:
> "Sander Bruggink" <bruggink.at.phil.uu.nl@no.spam.please> wrote in message news:cd0ine$fna$1@husserl.admin.phil.uu.nl...

>>Right. Notice how you talk about *programs*.
>
> The meaning is essentially the same.

Uh... no! The words "hardware" and "software" have distinct meanings.
And a program is software. And a non-pseudo random number generator is
hardware.

> The original claim was only made within the context of Turing
> Machines because at the time (and apparently still to this day)
> they are considered to be the most generally applicable universal
> model of computation.

Uh... no! One detail: they are considered to be *a* most general model
of computation. There are others: lambda calculus, term rewriting
systems, recursive functions, etc., all proven to be equivalent in
computing power to Turing Machines.

If I can show a way to circumvent the
> original proof's mechanism, and there is no other way than
> a method that can not be implemented as a Turing Machine,
> then not only have I successfully refuted the Halting Problem
> proof,

No, you haven't. Because your method cannot be implemented as a Turing
Machine.

> but also the Church-Turing thesis.

The Church-Turing thesis is just that: a thesis. Note how it is not
called: "The Church-Turing Theorem" or something.

> A fellow programmer where I work said that he thought that
> I could win the Turing prize for this. Wouldn't that be ironic?

That would be very ironic, indeed. Also, it would be highly improbable.

I noticed that you (again) snipped the part of my post to which you had
no answer. Here it is again:

"O, btw, let's assume that using a non-pseudo number generator is
possible. Of course de WillHalt function is not the only function which
may use that, right? Well, then it will fail to determine, in about 50%
of the cases, whether the following program halts:

function HaltOrNot {
   if (random() >= .5) then while (true);
                       else return;
}"

Note how I use *your* *own* *stupid* *rules* to refute you.

groente
-- Sander

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