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Nothing is capable of describing itself and the system in which it exists. It’s a much more complicated version of a file that contains its own hashsum
by deytempo 8y ago
Nothing is capable of describing itself and the system in which it exists. It’s a much more complicated version of a file that contains its own hashsum
- mirimir 8y agoI'd say that it's more about the ability to manipulate its own hash (aka Gödel number). But that's probably what you meant.
- justinator 8y agoI have high expectations that it will be proven that Perl can describe itself, and that only Perl can describe itself. :)
- phinnaeus 8y agoIt would be like a super-quine: a program capable of printing out it's own source code as well as the code needed to compile itself.
- earthicus 8y agoIt's more subtle than that, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-verifying_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-verifying_theories
- okintheory 8y agoAn inconsistent theory can prove its own consistency, so in what sense does a system proving its own consistency provide evidence that it is consistent?
- earthicus 8y agoThis issue is addressed informally in the introduction to the authors paper available here [1]. The pivotal move that addresses your complaint head on is Theorem 4.3. [1] https://www.jstor.org/stable/2695030 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2695030