Twenty-Second Lecture

Wednesday, November 15.

Turing Machines: Ideology, implications, etc.

Read the original! Turing's paper, especially the sections where he justifies his model.
Linguistic aside: it seems that in 1852, during the Great Trigonometric Survey of India, in Dehra Dun "a Bengali computer named Radhanath Sikhdar, had 'discovered the highest mountain of the world'" [Krakauer, Into Thin Air, pg 13]

Claim: Turing Machines capture the intuitive notion "effectively (=mechanically, without "miracles" or insights) computable.

Will show that Turing machines can do any other computation using two very fishy "proof techniques": exhaustive programming to show specific examples, and vigorous handwaving, followed by invoking authority.