begin  quoting [EMAIL PROTECTED] as of Tue, Jul 18, 2006 at 11:56:30PM -0700:
> > This isn't the same thing "in other words", and it's not correct.  The
> > program doesn't imitate another machine, it's the description of
> > another machine, so that the physical machine may imitate that other
> > machine.
> 
> Yes I think you are right.  A description of a Universal Turing
> Machine (the UTM program) is not the same thing the UTM which is
> a physical thing.

Conceptually. Conceptually a physical thing. It isn't *really* a
physical machine.

In practice, you don't get an infinite tape to process, nor do you get
an unbounded but finite time in which to do the computation.

> It is indeed odd that this certain physical machine is so
> incredibly flexible as to be able to mimic an infinite number
> of other physical machines known as Turing Machines.

Is it?

Remember, those other machines aren't arbitrary machines, they're
Turing Machines, which are Really Simple.

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