"No nonsense, just finite sense. What is this with verification that a machine doesn't halt? One can't do it, so what is the problem?"
The idea would be (if Mike is really willing to go that far): "It makes sense to say that a given Turing machine DOES halt; I know what that means. But to say that one DOESN'T halt? How can I make sense of that? Either a given machine has halted, or it has not halted yet. But to say that it never halts requires infinity, a nonsensical concept." An AI that only understood computable concepts would agree with the above. What I am saying is that such a view is... inhuman. On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 1:29 PM, Vladimir Nesov <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:10 PM, Abram Demski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Mike A.: >> >> Well, if you're convinced that infinity and the uncomputable are >> imaginary things, then you've got a self-consistent view that I can't >> directly argue against. But are you really willing to say that >> seemingly understandable notions such as the problem of deciding >> whether a given Turing machine will eventually halt are nonsense, >> simply because we would need infinite time to verify that one doesn't >> halt? >> > > Every thing that you understand is "imaginary", your understanding > itself is an image in your mind, which could get there reflecting > reality, through limited number of steps (or so physicists keep > telling), or could be generated by overly vivid finite imagination. > > No nonsense, just finite sense. What is this with verification that a > machine doesn't halt? One can't do it, so what is the problem? > > -- > Vladimir Nesov > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=106510220-47b225 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
