Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site milford.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!ucdavis!ucbvax!decvax!ittatc!milford!bill From: bill@milford.UUCP (bill) Newsgroups: net.math Subject: Re: Mind as Turing Machine: a proof *and* a disproof! Message-ID: <110@milford.UUCP> Date: Thu, 7-Nov-85 12:30:29 EST Article-I.D.: milford.110 Posted: Thu Nov 7 12:30:29 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 9-Nov-85 07:14:39 EST References: <509@klipper.UUCP> <1096@jhunix.UUCP> <2081@umcp-cs.UUCP> <702@ecsvax.UUCP> Distribution: net Organization: Telecomp,Inc. , Milford Ct. Lines: 34 Henry Schaffer (hes@ecsvax.UUCP) wrote: > Following this path, the rephrased question is "Can the mind be modelled > by a Turing machine?", and it can't be answered by showing speed > differences -- but it could by showing that the mind can "compute" > something that a Turing machine can't. (Vice-versa isn't possible, because > it is evident that the mind can simulate a Turing machine.) ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ > --henry schaffer n c state univ and Thomas Breuel (breuel@h-sc1.UUCP) wrote: > What you really want to know is whether the human brain is 'Turing > equivalent'. I think with fair certainty it can be said that it is > not, in the same sense that a general purpose computer is *not* > Turing equivalent: both don't have infinite memory. Both are much > more accurately captured by the notion of a finite state machine. ^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ I agree with both, the only problem is the old philosophical question of 'mind' =? 'brain' sneaks into the picture (usually called the Mind/Body question.) The brain quite obviously is a finite state machine but through the use of exterior memory media (my desk, my computer files, etc.) the mind can emulate devices requiring arbitrarily large memories and access. A more interesting question here might be "What type of machine can accept an arbitrarily chosen natural language?" I suspect that English is not a regular language nor a context-free language; is it context-sensitive? Is it more?? Sometimes I know my mind is only like a Mealy machine, quite often its only a finite state automata; but ideally I guess its a linear-bounded automata.