Re: Foundation for a Formal Refutation of the Original Halting Problem?

From: Peter Olcott (olcott_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 08/05/04 

Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2004 23:00:35 GMT

"Simon G Best" <s.g.best@btopenworld.com> wrote in message news:4110F828.6080802@btopenworld.com...
> Peter Olcott wrote:
> >
> > There are only limited possibilities.
> > A program that halts iff it goes into an infinite loop or goes into
> > an infinite loop iff it halts is not one of them.
>
> Agreed. That means that LoopIfHalts cannot exist.
>
> However, if WillHalt could exist, then LoopIfHalts could obviously
> exist. Therefore, it must be that WillHalt can't exist.
>
> It /really is/ that simple.
>
> It /really is/ that irrefutable.
>
> Simon
>
That a really great refutation for only paying attention to less than 10%
of what I said. It would not hold if you read the other 90% though.

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