Re: ethics

From: fudley (fuddley@fastmail.fm)
Date: Fri May 21 2004 - 09:11:09 MDT


On Thu, 20 May 2004 "J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew@ceruleansystems.com> said:

>there are all sorts of universal computer designs that are
>incapable of expressing an infinite loop.

I don’t know what you mean, I suppose you could have a machine that
always gives up after a fixed amount of time, but such a device would
hardly be “universal” and certainly doesn’t seem an appropriate
architecture for a super brain. Alan Turing proved 70 years ago that
sometimes you can’t even tell if you’re in a infinite loop or not.
Example: A very small and simple program than says “devote all your
recourses to finding an even number greater than 4 that is not the sum of
two primes, after you have finished that go on to other things”. Will you
ever actually go on to other things? Maybe yes, maybe no, there is no way
to tell.

John K Clark

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