4 ms·

Human heart is a Turing machine, research on XBox 360 shows. Wait, what?

26 points by Evgeny 17y ago

Allocator2008 17y ago
" 'He woke her then, and trembling and obedient she ate that burning heart out of his hands. Weeping I saw him then depart from me.' " - My all time favorite psychiatrist quoting Dante Alighieri :-)
ars 17y ago
Just because the halting problem can not be solved in the general case, does not mean it can't be solved for a specific program. So the conclusion with the heart are wrong. The "program" that is a heart might be analyzable as a halting problem. It's not a general purpose program after all - it's a specific one.
- roundsquare 17y ago
  Not to mention that the human heart has a finite number of cells. The amount of "memory" (or whatever word you use for the heat) is finite, making it a DFA/FSM not a Turing machine. You could argue that the number of cells is so huge that we might as well treat it like a Turing Machine, but given that the researchers were simulating the human heart, I'd disagree with that.
  - Shprrrrt 17y ago
    From this(http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/cvri/people/fellows/sears.htm http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/cvri/people/fellows/sears.htm), we can infer the apprximative average volume of a cardiac myocyte as 21 048 µm³. Knowing that the human heart weights on average 300g, it makes about 10^(10(+/-0.5)) cells, hence 2^(10^10) states for a FSM built on it (rough approximation). Even though the simulated experiment had obviosuly less cells, I think that the real heart can in practice be considered as turing equivalent.
ars 17y ago
He left out the most interesting part: how exactly a heart cell can simulate a nor gate.
unwind 17y ago
This must be one of the loudest screams for a good-looking, ultra-geekily designed T-shirt, ever. I'm thinking maybe something like this: <http://www.lafraise.com/Article/index/id/25&#62 http://www.lafraise.com/Article/index/id/25> but of course with NOR gates on the inside.
- Shprrrrt 17y ago
  Especially since the NOR logic gate symbol almost looks like a heart... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_NOR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_NOR

26 points by Evgeny 17y ago

Allocator2008 17y ago

" 'He woke her then, and trembling and obedient she ate that burning heart out of his hands. Weeping I saw him then depart from me.' " - My all time favorite psychiatrist quoting Dante Alighieri :-)

ars 17y ago

Just because the halting problem can not be solved in the general case, does not mean it can't be solved for a specific program. So the conclusion with the heart are wrong. The "program" that is a heart might be analyzable as a halting problem. It's not a general purpose program after all - it's a specific one.

roundsquare 17y ago
Not to mention that the human heart has a finite number of cells. The amount of "memory" (or whatever word you use for the heat) is finite, making it a DFA/FSM not a Turing machine. You could argue that the number of cells is so huge that we might as well treat it like a Turing Machine, but given that the researchers were simulating the human heart, I'd disagree with that.
- Shprrrrt 17y ago
  From this(http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/cvri/people/fellows/sears.htm http://www.well.ox.ac.uk/cvri/people/fellows/sears.htm), we can infer the apprximative average volume of a cardiac myocyte as 21 048 µm³. Knowing that the human heart weights on average 300g, it makes about 10^(10(+/-0.5)) cells, hence 2^(10^10) states for a FSM built on it (rough approximation). Even though the simulated experiment had obviosuly less cells, I think that the real heart can in practice be considered as turing equivalent.

ars 17y ago

He left out the most interesting part: how exactly a heart cell can simulate a nor gate.

unwind 17y ago

This must be one of the loudest screams for a good-looking, ultra-geekily designed T-shirt, ever. I'm thinking maybe something like this: <http://www.lafraise.com/Article/index/id/25&#62 http://www.lafraise.com/Article/index/id/25> but of course with NOR gates on the inside.

Shprrrrt 17y ago
Especially since the NOR logic gate symbol almost looks like a heart... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_NOR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_NOR