On Thu, Jan 24, 2008 at 07:40:43PM -0800, David Brown wrote: > All I'm saying is that the halting problem states that problems on an > unbounded machine isn't solvable, but even on a severely bounded machine, > there is no practical solution.
Yes. If I may throw in my 2 cents.... Even apparently simple systems can exhibit enormously complex behvior. Think of fractals and the entire field of nonlinear dynamics. Butterfly effect n' all that. Also, I don't know if this was mentioned yet, but the whole Star Trek Transporter thing has a big hurdle...quantum mechanics. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says you can't simultaneously know the position and velocity of all the atoms in your body precisely. Also, this whole philosophical discussion of computation theory applied to the human brain has a nice pop science book about it called "The Emperor's New Mind" by Penrose. cs -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
