Richard, The key word is not "infinite", it's the word "if"
The statement was "IF we had an infinite computer ...." It doesn't matter one bit whether such a device is possible - it's a perfectly valid "thought device" for thought experiments. It's easy to imagine what we would do with such a computer and how it could be used without stretching our brains too far. We can also imagine the moon being made of green cheese without this actually being the case. I don't see any problem with considering the behavior of a machine with certain characteristics just because we can't produce one. We cannot even be sure such a thing is impossible. It might not be constructed they way you assume it has to be to be called a computer. And just because we cannot imagine how such a machine could possible exist doesn't mean it cannot. It defies the laws of the universe as we know them assuming any kind of construction that we know about - but that in itself might mean that we currently lack the imagination to build such a device. Another problem is that we are a subset of our universe. We don't know much about the universe and we are constrained by it. It's entirely possible that such a computer could exist OUTSIDE our universe. It couldn't be explained or understood by us and probably could not operate as a physical device in our universe. The incompleteness theorem might explain why such a device might not be understood in our universe. But just saying it cannot exist is a pretty limited way of thinking about it and doesn't disqualify our ability to reason about it. - Don On Fri, 2006-11-24 at 08:42 -0600, Richard Brown wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Eeh, am I missing some point here or would not any Go program that uses > > search and infinite computer power "simply" SOLVE the game - given that > > scoring is done right and infinite loops are ruled out? > > This is a common misconception. The problem lies in that pesky word, > "infinite". > > Two inescapable facts prevent such a computer from ever existing: > > - There are a finite number of atomic particles in the universe. > > - The age of the universe is a finite length of time. > > These facts mean that, even _if_ one were able to use each and every atomic > particle as > a bit in one huge universe-sized computer, there would _never_ be sufficient > room > to store the results of such a search, even _if_ one had infinite time! > > And conversely, even _if_ there were an _infinite_ number of atomic particles > in > the universe, permitting sufficient room to store the results, the > calculation of > those results would take longer than the age of the universe, which is finite. > > > If we had infinite computing power Go would resemble tic tac toe from a > > programmer's perspective. period. > > You seem mighty certain about that. > > If the moon were made of green cheese, I am the pope. Period. > > Hmmm, I guess you are right after all. > _______________________________________________ computer-go mailing list [email protected] http://www.computer-go.org/mailman/listinfo/computer-go/
