Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Deeply awesome? Not really, no. 

I thought it was awesome that it actually reads the tape with a camera 
instead of cheating and storing anything in actual memory, for one.

 > It operates far, far too slowly to watch it do anything useful.

I think "TM" and "useful" aren't really intended to go together.

> It's completely opaque why it writes the symbol it does. 

I think the LCD display he isn't showing you in the videos covers that.


He also seems to be confused when he says it can compute anything 
computable. A Turing machine is a definition of computability, not a result.

There are clearly all kinds of things a TM can't compute, and certainly 
things a one-tape TM can't compute. We disregard those sorts of things 
*because* Turing defined computability in terms of TMs.

It's like saying passing the Turing test proves you're intelligent.  No, the 
Turing test is a definition of intelligence, and if you don't accept that 
definition, the test itself is meaningless.  You find that 90% of the 
arguments about things like the Chinese Room are simply arguments that the 
Turing test isn't a good definition.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Yes, we're traveling togeher,
   but to different destinations.

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