From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Oct 15 2009 - 04:33:29 MDT
2009/10/15 Mu In Taiwan <mu.in.taiwan@gmail.com>:
> 1 - Turing proved things about Turing Machines in 1936; not computers.
> Turing Machines are not the same as physical computers; they are
> mathematical abstractions that cannot and do not exist in the real world.
> This is a fact of physics. There's just no room for the tape.
Physical computers are finite state machines and a Turing machine can
emulate any finite state machine. Most likely, brains are finite state
machines and therefore Turing emulable. Brains seem to work following
the laws of physics and as far as we are aware the laws of physics are
computable. There have been some attempts to argue otherwise; for
example, Roger Penrose thinks that brains harness exotic physics and
are therefore hypercomputers, not finite state machines. But almost
no-one agrees with Penrose.
-- Stathis Papaioannou
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