Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation

From: Eray Ozkural exa (examachine_at_gmail.com)
Date: 11/22/04


Date: 22 Nov 2004 12:08:48 -0800


"Stephen Harris" <cyberguard1048-usenet@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<zegod.48477$QJ3.39747@newssvr21.news.prodigy.com>...
> "JXStern" <JXSternChangeX2R@gte.net> wrote in message
> news:v3n2q0tp4d3pelduh327ncs8tnflfdr7gl@4ax.com...
> > On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 01:48:39 GMT, "Stephen Harris"
> > <cyberguard1048-usenet@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >>> I'm a big fan of SEP, but I believe the idealist interpretation they
> >>> give Turing machines in several articles is inconsistent with what
> >>> Turing wrote, and inconsistent with what he wrote about.
> >>
> >>I'm not sure what SEP stands for.
> >
> > The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy that you gave several URLs
> > from.
> >
> > J.
> >
>
> http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/pages/Reference%20Articles/What%20is%20a%20Turing%20Machine.html#head
> by B.J. (Jack) Copeland
>
> "Commercially available computers are hard-wired to perform primitive
> operations considerably more sophisticated than those of a Turing machine
> --add, multiply, decrement, store-at-address, branch, and so forth. The
> precise constitution of the list of primitives varies from manufacturer to
> manufacturer. It is a remarkable fact that none of these computers can outdo
> a Turing machine. Despite the Turing machine's austere simplicity, it is
> capable of computing anything that any computer on the market can compute.
>
> Indeed, since it is an abstract or notional machine, a Turing machine can
> compute more than any physical computer. This is because
...

On the brakes! You're going off-track again.

Cheers,

--
Eray


Relevant Pages

  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... operations considerably more sophisticated than those of a Turing machine ... precise constitution of the list of primitives varies from manufacturer to ... the physical computer has access to only a bounded amount of memory, ... Turing machine is an idealised device, it has no real-world constraints ...
    (comp.theory)
  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... operations considerably more sophisticated than those of a Turing machine ... precise constitution of the list of primitives varies from manufacturer to ... the physical computer has access to only a bounded amount of memory, ... Turing machine is an idealised device, it has no real-world constraints ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... >> The Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy that you gave several URLs ... > operations considerably more sophisticated than those of a Turing machine ... > precise constitution of the list of primitives varies from manufacturer to ...
    (comp.theory)
  • Re: Arthur ODwyer on the feasibility of simulating a Turing Machine
    ... > equivalent to Church's thesis re the Turing machine. ... that Marxists would attempt to get involved in mathematical philosophy. ... Initially writing represents speech, and it is very unusual to know how to ... However written language has its own ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: Question on Chaitin
    ... >> I've tried to correct some of your ignorant claims about philosophy ... modeled as, a digital computer or Turing machine, is too vague to apply ... undermined by the incompleteness theorems. ... There is no question of what set a given Turing machine ...
    (sci.logic)