On Wed, Sep 30, 2015  Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote:

​>> ​
>> And that my friends is exactly why examples are so superior to
>> definitions, it avoids the absurd "define that word" endless loop that
>> people always use when they're losing a debate.
>
>
> ​> ​
> So by asking example when I give a definition, and asking a efinition when
> I give example is just to win the debate, and not to progress in
> understanding.
>

​When I say "physical computation" ​ and you demand a definition of that
and when I respond with "a computation done with physics" and you demand a
definition of that too then I believe it is perfectly acceptable for me to
either get off the silly definition merry-go-round or to demand a
definition of my own, a definition of definition.

>
>> ​>> ​
>> as of today there is ZERO evidence that arithmetic can calculate anything
>> without the help of physics;
>
> ​> ​
> Because
>

​Because? It doesn't matter why

​
there
is
​zero​
 evidence that arithmetic can
 ​
calculate anything without the help of physics
​ ​
because whatever the reason is it doesn't change the fact that there
is ZERO evidence that arithmetic can
​​
calculate anything without the help of physics
​.​ Excuses don't cut the mustard in science only evidence does.


> ​> ​
> you use the term computation in the sense of Church-Turing.
>

​I use the term "computation"  in the sense of actually finding a
particular solution to a particular problem in arithmetic; and neither
Church nor Turing were fools so they meant the same thing.


> ​>​
> They do not assume anything physical to define computation.
>

​A Turing Machine is physical, not that it matters a hoot in hell what
Turing or Church assumed because the fact remains there
is ZERO evidence that arithmetic can calculate anything without the help of
physics
​.​

​> ​
> I say only that 0+ x = 0, and things like that. I define computation and
> proof without assuming more.
>

In the entire history of the world nobody has ever seen a proof or a
definition make a calculation; as of September 30 2015 every calculation
ever observed has involved matter that obeys the laws of physics. No
exceptions, not a single one.

​  John K Clark​

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