Dear Friammers,
When I came to Santa Fe a decade ago, a recently retired psychology professor and writer, it was with a great interest in complexity and a faith that, with enough patience, and diligence I could come to understand what you were all about. This has proved much more difficult than I had imagined. So it was, with renewed optimism, that I picked up Chris Bernard's TURING'S VISION: THE BIRTH OF COMPUTER SCIENCE. It looked like the kind of book that I ought to be able to understand. (Note the use of modal language.) But, as so often happens with such deceptively simple, books-for-the-ordinary-citizen-like-me, its first few pages contained a few assumptions that seemed so bone-headedly counter-intuitive that everything I read thereafter was poisoned. So, I have four questions: 1. Has anybody read this book? 2. Do you understand it? 3. WTF is an Accept State? 4. And why is it called an "Accept State?" Hope the members of the Friam Mother Church are having good summer. You should know that you have had more rain in Santa Fe than we have had here in Massachusetts since I got back. My neighbors have started tearing up their lawns and laying down pebbles. Take care, Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
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