On Thursday, June 4, 2020 at 6:30:51 AM UTC-5, Bruno Marchal wrote:
>
>
> On 4 Jun 2020, at 07:19, Philip Thrift <[email protected] <javascript:>>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 1:03:58 PM UTC-5, Lawrence Crowell wrote:
>>
>> On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 8:35:34 AM UTC-5, Philip Thrift wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, June 3, 2020 at 5:26:08 AM UTC-5, Lawrence Crowell wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> For the most part computers are meant to run various algorithms that
>>>> solve some restricted set of problems, say business applications. We use
>>>> them largely as tools.
>>>>
>>>> LC
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> All of the (usable) theories of physics invented to date can be (and
>>> are) implemented on supercomputers (like those in the Dept. Of Energy
>>> national labs).
>>>
>>> Some physicists though talk as if there is a Church they must go to --
>>> where their minds are elevated into a Platonic realm where Physics is
>>> revealed to them.
>>>
>>> @philipthrift
>>>
>>
>> I guess one might say that is what experiments do.
>>
>> LC
>>
>
> As I say,
>
> Physics = Math + Witchcraft.
>
> (Computational Physics though is a programming domain.)
>
>
> That is correct. But computational physics, like physics, cannot be the
> last word, and the physical reality, nor the psychological reality can be
> “entirely” computable. The universal machine is already not something
> totally computable, only partially.
>
> Any theory rich enough to define what is a computer has a non computable
> semantics.
>
> Bruno
>
>
>
Years ago I wrote about the *Zetans*
http://poesophicalbits.blogspot.com/2012/04/persons-without-infinities.html
who never imagined infinities, nor found any reason to either think of
them, or invent them.
They have a fine definition of computers and computing, and have found no
need for anything more than finite mechanism in any of their theory of
computing.
That we came to think "infinity" plays a role in computing (or in computing
theory, or in mathematics in general) is just an aspect of our own peculiar
psychology and history, but it is not needed.
@philipthrift
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