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

From: Kent Paul Dolan (xanthian_at_well.com)
Date: 07/13/04 

Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 07:05:52 +0000 (UTC)

"|-|erc" <gotch@beauty.com> wrote:

> The issue is does the halting proof represent this
> question:

> Does there exist a single program that can input
> any general function to determine if it halts?

Well, no, not even close. There is a reason your
math arguments don't work out, and you've just
demonstrated it. Go find a competent statement of
the halting problem, study the differences from
yours, and try to gain something from the effort.

Humility would be a splendid first goal.

> Despite its popularity in comp.theory and
> sci.math, "I'm right" isn't the answer.

One would assume, then, that you would therefore
abandon its use in your numerology and "I am a
distinguished being separate from and above all
humankind" arguments.

You are still trying to "vote" about what is real,
and it still won't work. There may be lots of
political infighting in academic math and computer
science departments, but that has to do with pay,
perqs, and promotions; the results of the theorems
aren't changed by political campaigning, to the
intense disgust of you, James Harris, and a well
known list of others.

It is too bad you have so little self control you
cannot stop trying to do just that, as in your
"vote" on whether 1/oo == 0 is "true". It has
nothing to do with being "true", it is a
_definition_, used because it removes special cases
from many parts of mathematical computation.

Were you a practicing mathematician, you'd know that
from daily personal experience.

The question of whether the halting problem is
solvable is no longer an open issue in computer
science, so it really doesn't matter _who_ is saying
that Peter is off-base, nor does it matter who
springs to his defense, though having another
infamous math-incompetent kook do so is I suppose
somehow predictable.

Any proof Peter produces counter to the known result
on the halting problem is both incorrect, and not
worth reviewing, because by claiming to have found
one, he is merely admitting being either too lazy or
too unskilled to understand the proof of the
existing result.

This makes him therefore dismissable on purely
deductive grounds, without his "proof" ever being
considered.

Were he amenable to being corrected and to admitting
his errors, without immediately turning around and
committing errors no different in kind from the
previous ones, in pursuit of a goal already known in
advance to be impossible, kind persons might find
him worth educating, so that he might have the
potential someday to contribute to rather than
sidetrack computer science progress. However, with
his demonstrated invincible ignorance, he is a lost
cause not worth the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Changing mere ignorance is easy, if the target isn't
fighting with every available faculty to prevent
himself/herself from learning.

Changing the habit of ignorance is not even proved
possible yet.

As are you not worth that risk, but I happen to have
extremely durable wrists, very good typing habits,
and not one thing better to do with my life than to
protect what I hold dear from vandals like you.

xanthian. 

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