I checked the paper again and instead of a response through my phone, I'll try to be a bit clearer and leave out the psychology:
The misconception is that humans cannot be Turing machines because they lack infinite tape. In "On Computable Numbers, With An Application To The Entscheidungsproblem," Turing describes Universal Turing Machines (UTMs) using finite tables of instructions, with no inherent need for infinite resources. Each UTM operates based on a finite set of rules and transitions, handling finite inputs and outputs. The notion of an infinite tape is often misinterpreted; Turing's idea was that the tape could be extended as needed for any computation, ensuring sufficient resources for finite tasks rather than literally requiring an infinite resource. Turing's formalism re UTM does not involve actual infinities; UTMs are finite machines with finite instructions. Turing addresses the ambiguity of functions that may not halt, consistent with practical computing where some algorithms may run indefinitely. Therefore, the argument that humans cannot be Turing machines due to a lack of infinite tape is based on a misinterpretation of Turing's work. Turing's detailed description of UTMs involves finite tables, instructions, and inputs, making it clear that UTMs are finite in every way. This aligns with the practical realities of computation and human cognition, reinforcing the idea that human cognitive processes can be viewed as computational within Turing's theoretical framework. I mean, if you approach a UTM with a set of instructions that require the full expression of some transcendental number committed to memory in decimals, then hopefully the UTM is rich enough in reasoning abilities to ask you for your medical history/habits, instead of letting you start expressing the full description of your instructions. 😅 Looking at the paper, this seems too absurd to even mention there. On Tuesday, July 30, 2024 at 3:48:17 PM UTC+2 PGC wrote: > I just saw this now, so apologies for the late reply: > > On Saturday, July 20, 2024 at 4:49:40 AM UTC+2 Russell Standish wrote: > > > Hi Brent - you're just being a bit sloppy with terminology. All > universal Turing machines are equivalent computationally, but not all > Turing machines are universal. > > It's a moot point about whether a human can be considered a universal > Turing machine - a human's finite lifetime is a problem, so you'd > really need to consider something like a society of humans whose > organisation extends beyond the finite lifetime of an individual > human. Even then, there may well be limits to the amount of > computation physically possible in the universe, depending on the > universe's geometry (which gets us into Tipler's Omega point theory, > for example). > > > This is the standard "infinite tape thus we can't be universal Turing > machine argument". I thought It refuted by the fact that a universal Turing > machine is a finite machine, as can be verified by the Tables of Turing's > publications, that imply description, properties, and code of such machines > in Turing's formalism. But there's nothing infinite about them. He used the > term "infinite tape" much more weakly in the sense "as long as is required > by what the machine is executing". Iirc it is also this finitude that will > psychologically predispose UTM's aware of it, to write on cave walls, build > libraries, buy new hard drives, or subscribe to cloud services. I don't > know if we are UTMs but I thought they were finite machines, which can be > expressed in finite manner, working with finite sets of instructions, some > of which do not halt. > > And "death" to such a machine would just appear to be deletion of all > local memory. Sort of local amnesia. Acquiring more space for your hard > drive... it's also the agenda of all colonialists who attempt the > psychological escape of the mortal coil by acquiring more land for more > space to configure their memories more favorably towards them. It's what > would motivate some to seek out Mars and new planets, or to manifest > destiny towards the west and similar. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/8674c23f-cd63-46c6-b1c6-025680f69ca4n%40googlegroups.com.
