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Humans seem to perform hyper computation all the time. Eg in programming we can decide a whole lot of programs halt. We seem to do something close to Solomono
by yters 9y ago
Humans seem to perform hyper computation all the time. Eg in programming we can decide a whole lot of programs halt. We seem to do something close to Solomonoff induction. Etc. computational presuppositions are the only reason to not find this compelling, and materialism and hard atheism are the only reasons to be committed to computationalism.
- ewjordan 9y agoNo, that's a misunderstanding of what hypercomputation is. If you can write down or talk yourself through a proof of why a program will halt, you have solved a computable problem. By definition. When you say "we can decide a whole lot of programs halt", you're talking about plain Jane computation. If you have knowledge that any program that I give you will or will not halt, then you're a hypercomputing oracle for the halting problem, and you can do magic, basically. There's a world of difference between the two situations. And I'm fairly sure (but not positive) that there's no way for you to prove in finite space and time that you are an oracle for the halting problem. Edit: for more on that last bit, see https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/19f9/0c34cdda43efdcf0831b2f9a037b57ddac21.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/19f9/0c34cdda43efdcf0831b2f...