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I agree that there's a qualitative difference between a cuckoo clock and a programmable computer, but the difference between a computer and a calculator or a fi
by YeGoblynQueenne 3y ago
I agree that there's a qualitative difference between a cuckoo clock and a programmable computer, but the difference between a computer and a calculator or a fixed program computer is much less clear and much more open to arbitrary proclamations of what we can call a computer, and what not.
Don't forget that modern computers include all sorts of special-purpose components, like ALUs etc. In the limit, a universal machine is the union of infinite non-universal machines, after all.