On Mar 26, 2010, at 11:59 PM, sarbajit roy wrote:
Hi
Welcome!
I'm an engineer (so not really a scientist). Was just mulling if
everything on this list has to be "complex" (ie. made complicated) by
converting / reducing to simple mathematical "models" (with loads of
assumptions) to solve problems, which nobody (or hardly anyone) faces
in the real world, on inappropriate machines.
We started late 2002, meeting here in Santa Fe for coffee Friday
mornings to chat about complexity science .. things related to the
Santa Fe Institute's work.
The list started as a way to continue the chat on-line, and to
announce things like changes in venue etc.
It grew over time to be very wide spread, I think we're well over 400
now.
Our conversations are all over the map, as you are discovering! :)
The Analog question came about because a few of us are interested in
theoretical computer science, and during one of Nick Thompson's
seminar series, a question was asked about the state of analog
computer science. For example is there a computational complexity
hierarchy for analog computing? Are there decidability issues? Is
there a suite of automata under study?
One example question could be: Is there the equivalent problem to the
Halting Problem in the analog domain? In digital computers, we can
prove the number of programs is in the countably infinite domain,
while the "languages" that can be recognized by digital computers is
in the continuum. Thus the gap would suggest unsolvable problems for
digital computers.
Is the same true for analog?
Analog computers IMO could include many practical (but now obsolete)
devices like a) analog PID controllers b) firing trajectory
controllers c) range finders etc.
It is interesting that they fell out of style, given their possible
strengths.
Sarbajit Roy
-- Owen
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