Maybe I've missed it, but has no one pointed out that a "Turing Machine" is a mathematical formalism? I may be a stick in the mud, but I refuse to extend the definition of "know" so far as to make "A Turing Machine knows [something]" a meaningful statement. You might as well ask what a Goedel Enumeration knows, or what The Classification of Finite Simple Groups knows. Hell, what does the integer 1 know???
Now maybe in you-alls' circles, "Turing Machine" is used to refer to some kinds of physical implementations of particular Turing Machines. But that's a pernicious identification that can only lead to tears. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
