leimkuhl@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/07/85)
/* Written 6:09 am Nov 1, 1985 by biep@klipper.UUCP in uiucdcsp:net.math */ /* ---------- "Re: Mind as Turing Machine: a proof" ---------- */ > >[] > The problem in the discussion in that nobody has stated clearly > which equivalence relation he is using. Psycholinguistics has > found that humans can search their memory in < log n time, n > being the number of items. Turing machines clearly can not do > better than order n time. Proof that humans are not Turing machines. > (Note I took an equivalence relation which did look at time.) > This is crap. Human beings do not have perfect recall--computers do. Thus humans execute imperfect searches on large sets. The computer must perform a complete search. Furthermore, if data is stored in an ordered binary tree (who's to say that's not how the mind stores data) then searches can be conducted by turing machine in log n time. > 1) Before you flame me: yes, I have a masters of mathematics. What the heck does this mean? Most of the people reading this notesfile have at least a bachelors in mathematics, many have Ph.Ds. A master's in mathematics is certainly no license to spout nonsense without rebuttal. -Ben Leimkuhler (uiucdcs!leimkuhl)
leimkuhl@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/07/85)
You are correct, Pat. The author of the original note seems to wish to imbue the human mind with some sort of mystic searching capability. -Ben Leimkuhler (uiucdcs!leimkuhl)