Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation

From: JXStern (JXSternChangeX2R_at_gte.net)
Date: 11/30/04 

Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 04:49:12 GMT

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 04:34:57 +0000 (UTC), Neil W Rickert
<rickert+nn@cs.niu.edu> wrote:
>We clearly disagree here. That may have something to do with why
>we disagree about computation and about mathematics.

I'm clearly making tendentious statements that could use a whole lot
more support than I'm giving them here. Discussed at great length, I
suspect we would agree more than it might seem. Wish I had time for
it, but am currently working a job at the end of a long commute.

>That's actually a quite different problem.
>
>Computation is the manipulation of representations. The difficulty
>in writing effective software, is because we don't start with
>representations. Rather, we start with a real world problem of some
>kind. Thus we must first find a way to reduce the problem to one of
>manipulating representations. Until we have done that, it is not a
>computational problem.

But I want to view computation ONLY as this wider problem, and
sporadically at least, so do you! And, I want to treat "software
development" as at least a rough equivalent to the issues of
computation.

>No, it is not that at all. It seems that the idea of software as the
>mechanical solving of problems (i.e. automation) has gone the way of
>the dodo. These days, software is all about writing GUI interfaces
>and other kinds of visual candy, so that we can keep people amused as
>they do the work that we are unable to automate.
>
>And perhaps automation has become less valuable, now that we can
>outsource the labor-intensive work to other places.

Gee I wish I said that ...

J.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... >we disagree about computation and about mathematics. ... >Computation is the manipulation of representations. ... >And perhaps automation has become less valuable, ... >outsource the labor-intensive work to other places. ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... Computation is the manipulation of representations. ... >the difficulty and cost of writing software, you tend not to hear that ... >nobody in the states much cares. ... And perhaps automation has become less valuable, ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Turing Machines and Physical Computation
    ... Computation is the manipulation of representations. ... >the difficulty and cost of writing software, you tend not to hear that ... >nobody in the states much cares. ... And perhaps automation has become less valuable, ...
    (comp.theory)
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