From: Michael Fitzgerald (fitzgerm@ocean.com.au)
Date: Wed Nov 04 1998 - 07:20:37 MST
John Clark wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Michael Fitzgerald <fitzgerm@ocean.com.au> Wrote:
>
> >question: could someone please try to explain to me -in terms
> adapted to
> >the level of mathmatical aptitude suggested by foregoing- the
> proof
> >offered by Tipler on p.26 of Physics of immortality, that is, the
>
> >argument he offers to prove that the Halting problem is
> unsolvable.
>
> I wrote about that and some other stuff in my dialog "Waiting For Zed"
> that was on
> Extropy Online, this is part of it.
> ===================================
Thanks John,
I was starting to worry that perhaps my question was too dumb to attract
an answer from the group -which in turn caused me to doubt whether I was
being realistic in hanging in here.
Your response, which I must admit, has not left me entirely satisfied
that I understand the problem any better, has at least reassured me, and
encourages me to hang in.
If I have understood anything, it seems that (and Tipler says as much)
if a person can understand the proof of the halting problem, that person
is doing something that a computer program can't do ...as yet? ever?
Thanks again,
Michael
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:43 MST