Mike, Will's objection is not quite so easily dismissed. You need to argue that there is an alternative, not just that Will's is more of the same.
--Abram On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > MT:By contrast, all deterministic/programmed machines and computers are >> >> guaranteed to complete any task they begin. > > Will:If only such could be guaranteed! We would never have system hangs, > dead locks. Even if it could be made so, computer systems would not > always want to do so. > > Will, > > That's a legalistic, not a valid objection, (although heartfelt!).In the > above case, the computer is guaranteed to hang - and it does, strictly, > complete its task. > > What's happened is that you have had imperfect knowledge of the program's > operations. Had you known more, you would have known that it would hang. > > Were your computer like a human mind, it would have been able to say (as > you/we all do) - "well if that part of the problem is going to be difficult, > I'll ignore it" or.. "I'll just make up an answer..". or "by God I'll keep > trying other ways until I do solve this.." or... "..zzzzzzzz" or ... > Computers, currently, aren't free thinkers. > > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: > https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=111637683-c8fa51 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
