Re: Mathematical Logic, Podnieks'page ...

From: Kory Heath <kory.heath.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 14:04:21 -0400

At 02:17 PM 7/2/2004, CMR wrote:
>Would it not be more to the point to ask whether I believe in an "ideal"
>computer

No! It isn't more to the point. You may believe that all physical things
are subject to entropy, and that therefore no physical computer could last
forever, but you should still be able to talk about whether or not some
program *would halt* if it were allowed to run forever. Look at the
following program:

1: X = 1
2: X++
3: if X < 1 then halt
4: goto 2

This program would clearly never halt if it were run on an "ideal computer"
- and we can recognize that fact even while believing in entropy and the
physical impossibility of running a program forever, etc. So the question
is, for every possible finite program, do you believe there's a fact of the
matter about whether or not it would halt if we *were* able to run it forever?

-- Kory
Received on Sat Jul 03 2004 - 14:06:20 PDT