Good morning everyone and welcome to Tuesday’s Morning Open Thread.
Morning Open Thread is a daily, copyrighted post from a host of editors and guest writers. We support our community, invite and share ideas, and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue in an open forum.
I’ve come to think of this post as one where you come for the music and stay for the conversation—so feel free to drop a note.
Join us, please.
Given all the issues I’m having (and this goes back a ways, believe me) with DKos and computers in general, I thought I might feature someone who is dealing with the questions surrounding what computers can’t and will never be able to do: essentially the limits of computing. Since computers were conceived—even before working models were ever built—the question of their limits was being studied. Factoring, for example, can be done by computers; and if one has a powerful enough computer and enough time, perhaps the factors of even astronomically-long numbers can be found. Yet we’ve also known for some time that there are multiple limits to what computers can do, regardless of their size, speed, and any amount of given time.
From Wired:
Are there any questions that, __no matter how powerful your computer, and no matter how long you waited, your computer would never be able to answer?
Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The Halting Problem asks whether a computer program will stop after some time, or whether it will keep running forever. This is a very practical concern, because an infinite loop is a common type of bug that can subtly creep in to one's code. In 1936, the brilliant mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing proved that it's impossible for a computer to inspect any code that you give it, and correctly tell you whether the code will halt or run forever. In other words, Turing showed that a computer can never solve the Halting Problem.
It will come as no surprise to anyone here (because we all use computers to some extent) that the Halting Problem isn’t the only problem facing computers. I hope you enjoy the video and maybe even learn a thing or two.
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Be well, be kind, and appreciate the love you have in your life.
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Grab your coffee or tea and join us, please.
What's on your mind this morning?