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<h1><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-weight:normal">Or implement a </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-weight:normal">Mersenne Twister with a period of 2<sup>19937</sup> – 1 and inject some conditionals in the machine to make the `mistakes’. That’s
a distinction without a difference to a behaviorist.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">From: </span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> on behalf of Frank Wimberly <wimberly3@gmail.com><br>
<b>Reply-To: </b>The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br>
<b>Date: </b>Saturday, April 27, 2019 at 11:29 AM<br>
<b>To: </b>"Russ.Abbott@gmail.com" <Russ.Abbott@gmail.com>, The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com><br>
<b>Subject: </b>Re: [FRIAM] A question for tomorrow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Lee, Surely someone has developed probabilistic Turing Machines which can, very rarely, make errors. I am ignorant of the field since 1972 when I took a course which used Hopcroft and Ullman as a text.<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Nick, I agree that your questions are charming. Your humanity is clearly seen. By the way, it occurred to me this morning that the motto of behaviorists should be, "If it talks like a duck<span style="font-family:"Apple Color Emoji"">🦆</span>...etc"<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Frank<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-----------------------------------<br>
Frank Wimberly<br>
<br>
My memoir:<br>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly">https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly</a><br>
<br>
My scientific publications:<br>
<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2</a><br>
<br>
Phone (505) 670-9918<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 10:59 AM Russ Abbott <<a href="mailto:russ.abbott@gmail.com">russ.abbott@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">Nick,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:black">One of the most attractive things about your posts is how charming they are. They are so well written! Thank you for keeping the discussion at such a civilized and
enjoyable level -- even when I don't agree with you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-- Russ Abbott <br>
Professor, Computer Science<br>
California State University, Los Angeles<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Sat, Apr 27, 2019 at 9:44 AM <<a href="mailto:lrudolph@meganet.net" target="_blank">lrudolph@meganet.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Frank writes:<br>
> I would hate to have to demonstrate that a modern computer is an instance<br>
> of a Turing Machine. Among other things they usually have multiple<br>
> processors as well as memory hierarchies. But I suppose it could be done,<br>
> theoretically.<br>
<br>
First a passage from a chapter I contributed to a book edited by a<br>
graduate student Nick knows (Zack Beckstead); I have cut out a bit in the<br>
middle which aims at a different point not under consideration here.<br>
===begin===<br>
If talk of “machines” in the context of the human sciences seems out of<br>
place, note that Turing (1936) actually introduces his “automatic machine”<br>
as a formalization (thoroughly mathematical, though described in<br>
suggestive mechanistic terms like “tape” and “scanning”) of “an idealized<br>
*human* calculating agent” (Soare, 1996, p. 291; italics in the original),<br>
called by Turing a “computer”. [...] As Turing remarks, “It is always<br>
possible for the computer to break off from his work, to go away and<br>
forget all about it, and later to come back and go on with it” (1936, p.<br>
253). It seems to me that then it must also be “always possible for the<br>
computer to break off” and never “come back” (in fact, this often happens<br>
in the lives, and invariably upon the deaths, of non-idealized human<br>
calculating agents).<br>
===end===<br>
Of course Turing's idealization of "an idealized *human* calculating<br>
agent" also idealizes away the fact that human computers sometimes make<br>
errors. A Turing machine doesn't make errors. But both the processors and<br>
the memory of a modern computer can, and *must* make errors (however<br>
rarely, and however good the error-detection). To at least that extent,<br>
then, they are not *perfect* instantiations of Turing machines. On the<br>
other hand, that very fact about them makes them (in some sense) *more*<br>
like (actual) human calculating agents.<br>
<br>
So, Nick, why are you asking what Turing machines think, instead of what<br>
modern computers think? (Be careful how you answer that...)<br>
<br>
<br>
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