On 4/8/2012 11:25 AM, Darren New wrote:
> I just found it amusing
> that there re things we have our computers do every day that a Turing
> machine can't do, including programming universal turing machines.

I think perhaps this is the crux of the difference in out viewpoints.  I 
don't consider a "normal" computer as any more capable of programming a 
UTM in the sense you seem to mean it than a normal TM is.  Both have to 
operate on some encoding of the TM that the initial program is for, and 
I don't see why binary digits represented by electrical means are any 
less of an encoding than abstract symbols on a tape.

Post a reply to this message