On Thu, Dec 08, 2016 at 11:03:45AM +0100, Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote: > Am Donnerstag, 8. Dezember 2016 schrieb KatolaZ: > > On Thu, Dec 08, 2016 at 10:38:52AM +0100, Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote: > > > Am Donnerstag, 8. Dezember 2016 schrieb Rick Moen: > > > > So, banning software patents is difficult, because of the ease of > > > > instantiating software in hardware. > > > > > > On the contrary, it's quite easy: what ever can be implemented using a > > > turing machine is not patentable. > > > > > > > That would include also all digital hardware ;) It wouldn't be too > > bad, indeed... > > No, it would not. You cannot implement e.g. an array of transistors on a > turing machine, but you can implement a turing machine on an array of > transistors :-) >
A Turing machine can execute any computable function, hence it can "simuate" the functioning of any classical digital device (your "array of transistors" is in fact just a network of switches, which takes as input a certain set of binary signals and produces as output another set of binary signals). And since any useful digital device produces an output (effect) in a time that is polynomial in the size of its input (a set of digital signals), a classical digital device can indeed be simulated by a deterministic Turing machine in polynomial time. This means that simulating a (functioning) digital device is actually in P. But we are now deeply OT here :) HND KatolaZ -- [ ~.,_ Enzo Nicosia aka KatolaZ - GLUGCT -- Freaknet Medialab ] [ "+. katolaz [at] freaknet.org --- katolaz [at] yahoo.it ] [ @) http://kalos.mine.nu --- Devuan GNU + Linux User ] [ @@) http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia -- GPG: 0B5F062F ] [ (@@@) Twitter: @KatolaZ - skype: katolaz -- github: KatolaZ ] _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list [email protected] https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
