Re: turing machine...who cares?

[z007400b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Ralph Silverman)]

Patrick Juola (patrick@gryphon.psych.ox.ac.uk) wrote:
: In article <4lr9po$hou@nntp.seflin.lib.fl.us> z007400b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us (Ralph Silverman) writes:
: 	the turing machine was rather fully defined <1942 and
: 	reasonably, electronic binary digital computer(s)
: 	postdates this time...  now, it is the
: 		electronic binary digital computer
: 	that has become so ubiquitous, not the turing machine...
: 	though there may not be universal agreement
: 	regarding the essential nature of the computers
: 	we do,  actually,  have...
: 	frequently these are represented as being
: 		vonneumann machine(s) .
: 	why is it not more interesting to study the kind
: 	of computers we have,  actually, than the kind we do not ? 

: Mr. Silverman, your naivety is starting to astonish me.  All computers
: that we are able to build can be shown to be at best equivalent in
: computational abilities to Turing machines -- and furthermore, any
: reasonably intelligent design produces something that, given infinite
: memory, would be exactly equivalent to a Turing machine.  So the direct
: answer to your question is that, we *do* study the kind of computers
: we have -- they're Turing machines.

: More generally, I suggest that you find and read a copy of Hopcroft
: and Ullman's _Theory of Automata and Languages_ since most of the
: questions you've been posing recently are quite well answered therein.

: 	Patrick

--
************begin r.s. response*************

	right now i program on
	an antiquated
		COMPAQ model 2551
		286 12
	.
	even regarding this,  now,
	modest capability system...
	there never has been a
		turing machine
	made
		"...equivalent in computational abilities..."
	to it.

	also,
	if
		the interpretation of what a
		turing machine
	is...
	is a
		non-finite machine
	then
	it is very different than
	the ones we so customarily use!!!!!!!!!!!!!


************end r.s. response***************
Ralph Silverman
z007400b@bcfreenet.seflin.lib.fl.us