[net.math] Turing Equivalence of Human Information Processing

kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) (11/18/85)

I agree with Christopher Reedy that a human with access to the
world's libraries has information processing capabilities equivalent
to a Turing machine with unlimited external memory.  (We are ignoring
the time-efficiency issue, of course, when we speak of Turing-equivalence.)
Nevertheless, there do seem to be some functions of the brain that
transcend pure information processing.  I suspect these have to do
with survival instincts, healing, and propagation of the species.  (This
is not to say that a race of machines couldn't be created with these
additional properties.  But I don't think they are inherent in a Turing
machine.)
--Barry Kort