2012/8/15 John Clark <[email protected]> > On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 2:16 PM, William R. Buckley < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Regardless of your dislike for the term omniscience >> > > I don't dislike the term, in fact I think I'd rather enjoy being > omniscient but unfortunately I'm not. > > > the Turing machine can compute all computable computations, >> > > Yes, and thus Turing proved that in general determining if a computer > program will ever stop is not computable; > > all you can do is watch it and see what it does. >
No, all you can know is that no *general* algorithm (as you pointed out) can solve that. And I have to say it again, it doesn't mean that a particular one cannot solve the halting problem for a particular algorithm. And unless you prove that that particular algorithm is undecidable, then it is still possible to find another algorithm that could decide on the halting of that algorithm. > If you see it stop then obviously you know that it stopped but if its > still going then you know nothing, maybe it will eventually stop and maybe > it will not, you need to keep watching and you might need to keep watching > forever. > It's obviously not true for *a lot* of algorithm.... Quentin > > John K Clark > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > -- All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
