Re: Olcott is cured of CrackPottery! (Halting Problem)

From: Kevin Cline (kevin.cline_at_gmail.com)
Date: 09/24/04 

Date: 23 Sep 2004 15:25:47 -0700

chvol@aol.com (Charlie-Boo) wrote in message news:<3df1e59f.0409230521.8fcf09d@posting.google.com>...
> "Peter Olcott" <olcott@worldnet.att.net> wrote
> > In retrospect it was apparently me that was wrong all along.
> > Alan Turing was right, and from this I will venture to make
> > an educated guess that Kurt Gödel was also right.
>
> All of this discussion over Turing's proof that there are problems
> that can't be programmed only misses the real point. Any good
> programmer can tell you there are plenty of problems that can't be
> programmed, including many more than discovered by Turing. Such as:
>
> 1. Specifications that the user refuses to evaluate or approve.
> 2. Users who keep changing their minds.
> 3. Incomplete or inconsistent specs.

> 4. Writing a program to compose a song

Actually, this has been done. The results are probably less
repetitive than the repertoires of some successful pop music acts.

> 5. Writing a program that can love, hate or envy.

Is this assertion falsifiable? How would one demonstrate that a
program did love, hate, or envy?

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