[FRIAM] A question for tomorrow
Frank Wimberly
wimberly3 at gmail.com
Sat Apr 27 09:33:18 EDT 2019
I will channel Nick based on our conversation yesterday. "A computer is a
Turing machine and it can answer questions."* I apologize, Nick, if that's
not your position.
*Alexa, Siri, Hey Google
-----------------------------------
Frank Wimberly
My memoir:
https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly
My scientific publications:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2
Phone (505) 670-9918
On Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 7:22 AM <lrudolph at meganet.net> wrote:
> Maybe I've missed it, but has no one pointed out that a "Turing Machine"
> is a mathematical formalism? I may be a stick in the mud, but I refuse to
> extend the definition of "know" so far as to make "A Turing Machine knows
> [something]" a meaningful statement. You might as well ask what a Goedel
> Enumeration knows, or what The Classification of Finite Simple Groups
> knows. Hell, what does the integer 1 know???
>
> Now maybe in you-alls' circles, "Turing Machine" is used to refer to some
> kinds of physical implementations of particular Turing Machines. But
> that's a pernicious identification that can only lead to tears.
>
>
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