I have only a few things left to say, and then you may have the last word.
- My mention of Turing machines was ill-considered, as I have already admitted
- Turing machines are interesting because:
- They are powerful enough to be widely applicable
- They are simple and easy to think about
- They are not very much different from a machine that could actually be constructed
- Computability and complexity of algorithms are inextricably connected
- Any reasonably competent programmer can code a finite tape Turing machine in a matter of minutes
- Anticipitating your probable response to the above, imagine that I hand you a black box which I claim contains a Turing machine. Without opening the box, what kind of "Turing test" would you put it through to determine whether it contains a "real" Turing machine or a simulation of one using a general-purpose computer?
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|
