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Zeno Machine
In mathematics and computer science, Zeno machines (abbreviated ZM, and also called accelerated Turing machine, ATM) are a hypothetical computational model related to Turing machines that are capable of carrying out computations involving a countably infinite number of algorithmic steps. These machines are ruled out in most models of computation. The idea of Zeno machines was first discussed by Hermann Weyl in 1927; the name refers to Zeno's paradoxes, attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. Zeno machines play a crucial role in some theories. The theory of the Omega Point devised by physicist Frank J. Tipler, for instance, can only be valid if Zeno machines are possible. Definition A Zeno machine is a Turing machine that can take a infinite number of steps, and then continue take more steps. This can be thought of as a supertask where 1/2^n units of time are taken to perform the n-th step; thus, the first step takes 0.5 units of time, the second takes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Limit Ordinal
In set theory, a limit ordinal is an ordinal number that is neither zero nor a successor ordinal. Alternatively, an ordinal λ is a limit ordinal if there is an ordinal less than λ, and whenever β is an ordinal less than λ, then there exists an ordinal γ such that β 0, are limits of limits, etc. Properties The classes of successor ordinals and limit ordinals (of various cofinalities) as well as zero exhaust the entire class of ordinals, so these cases are often used in proofs by transfinite induction or definitions by transfinite recursion. Limit ordinals represent a sort of "turning point" in such procedures, in which one must use limiting operations such as taking the union over all preceding ordinals. In principle, one could do anything at limit ordinals, but taking the union is continuous in the order topology and this is usually desirable. If we use the von Neumann cardinal assignment, every infinite cardinal number is also a limit ordinal (and this is a fitting obs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypercomputation
Hypercomputation or super-Turing computation refers to models of computation that can provide outputs that are not Turing-computable. Super-Turing computing, introduced at the early 1990's by Hava Siegelmann, refers to such neurological inspired, biological and physical realizable computing; It became the mathematical foundations of Lifelong Machine Learning. Hypercomputation, introduced as a field of science in the late 1990s, is said to be based on the Super Turing but it also includes constructs which are philosophical. For example, a machine that could solve the halting problem would be a hypercomputer; so too would one that can correctly evaluate every statement in Peano arithmetic. The Church–Turing thesis states that any "computable" function that can be computed by a mathematician with a pen and paper using a finite set of simple algorithms, can be computed by a Turing machine. Hypercomputers compute functions that a Turing machine cannot and which are, hence, not computa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turing Machine
A Turing machine is a mathematical model of computation describing an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite the model's simplicity, it is capable of implementing any computer algorithm. The machine operates on an infinite memory tape divided into discrete cells, each of which can hold a single symbol drawn from a finite set of symbols called the alphabet of the machine. It has a "head" that, at any point in the machine's operation, is positioned over one of these cells, and a "state" selected from a finite set of states. At each step of its operation, the head reads the symbol in its cell. Then, based on the symbol and the machine's own present state, the machine writes a symbol into the same cell, and moves the head one step to the left or the right, or halts the computation. The choice of which replacement symbol to write and which direction to move is based on a finite table that specifies what to do for each comb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Models Of Computation
In computer science, and more specifically in computability theory and computational complexity theory, a model of computation is a model which describes how an output of a mathematical function is computed given an input. A model describes how units of computations, memories, and communications are organized. The computational complexity of an algorithm can be measured given a model of computation. Using a model allows studying the performance of algorithms independently of the variations that are specific to particular implementations and specific technology. Models Models of computation can be classified into three categories: sequential models, functional models, and concurrent models. Sequential models Sequential models include: * Finite state machines * Post machines (Post–Turing machines and tag machines). * Pushdown automata * Register machines ** Random-access machines * Turing machines * Decision tree model Functional models Functional models include: * Abstract rew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ross–Littlewood Paradox
The Ross–Littlewood paradox (also known as the balls and vase problem or the ping pong ball problem) is a hypothetical problem in abstract mathematics and Mathematical logic, logic designed to illustrate the paradoxical, or at least Intuition (knowledge), non-intuitive, nature of infinity. More specifically, like the Thomson's lamp paradox, the Ross–Littlewood paradox tries to illustrate the conceptual difficulties with the notion of a supertask, in which an infinite number of tasks are completed sequentially. The problem was originally described by mathematician John Edensor Littlewood, John E. Littlewood in his 1953 book ''Littlewood's Miscellany'', and was later expanded upon by Sheldon Ross in his 1988 book ''A First Course in Probability''. The problem starts with an empty vase and an infinite supply of balls. An infinite number of steps are then performed, such that at each step 10 balls are added to the vase and 1 ball removed from it. The question is then posed: ''How ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specker Sequence
In computability theory, a Specker sequence is a computable, monotonically increasing, bounded sequence of rational numbers whose supremum is not a computable real number. The first example of such a sequence was constructed by Ernst Specker (1949). The existence of Specker sequences has consequences for computable analysis. The fact that such sequences exist means that the collection of all computable real numbers does not satisfy the least upper bound principle of real analysis, even when considering only computable sequences. A common way to resolve this difficulty is to consider only sequences that are accompanied by a modulus of convergence; no Specker sequence has a computable modulus of convergence. More generally, a Specker sequence is called a ''recursive counterexample'' to the least upper bound principle, i.e. a construction that shows that this theorem is false when restricted to computable reals. The least upper bound principle has also been analyzed in the progr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computation In The Limit
In computability theory, a function is called limit computable if it is the limit of a uniformly computable sequence of functions. The terms computable in the limit, limit recursive and recursively approximable are also used. One can think of limit computable functions as those admitting an eventually correct computable guessing procedure at their true value. A set is limit computable just when its characteristic function is limit computable. If the sequence is uniformly computable relative to ''D'', then the function is limit computable in ''D''. Formal definition A total function r(x) is limit computable if there is a total computable function \hat(x,s) such that : \displaystyle r(x) = \lim_ \hat(x,s) The total function r(x) is limit computable in ''D'' if there is a total function \hat(x,s) computable in ''D'' also satisfying : \displaystyle r(x) = \lim_ \hat(x,s) A set of natural numbers is defined to be computable in the limit if and only if its characteristic functi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decidability (logic)
In logic, a true/false decision problem is decidable if there exists an effective method for deriving the correct answer. Zeroth-order logic (propositional logic) is decidable, whereas first-order and higher-order logic are not. Logical systems are decidable if membership in their set of logically valid formulas (or theorems) can be effectively determined. A theory (set of sentences closed under logical consequence) in a fixed logical system is decidable if there is an effective method for determining whether arbitrary formulas are included in the theory. Many important problems are undecidable, that is, it has been proven that no effective method for determining membership (returning a correct answer after finite, though possibly very long, time in all cases) can exist for them. Decidability of a logical system Each logical system comes with both a syntactic component, which among other things determines the notion of provability, and a semantic component, which determines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Hierarchy
In the mathematical field of descriptive set theory, a subset A of a Polish space X is projective if it is \boldsymbol^1_n for some positive integer n. Here A is * \boldsymbol^1_1 if A is analytic * \boldsymbol^1_n if the complement of A, X\setminus A, is \boldsymbol^1_n * \boldsymbol^1_ if there is a Polish space Y and a \boldsymbol^1_n subset C\subseteq X\times Y such that A is the projection of C; that is, A=\ The choice of the Polish space Y in the third clause above is not very important; it could be replaced in the definition by a fixed uncountable Polish space, say Baire space or Cantor space or the real line. Relationship to the analytical hierarchy There is a close relationship between the relativized analytical hierarchy on subsets of Baire space (denoted by lightface letters \Sigma and \Pi) and the projective hierarchy on subsets of Baire space (denoted by boldface letters \boldsymbol and \boldsymbol). Not every \boldsymbol^1_n subset of Baire space is \Sigma^1_n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudocode
In computer science, pseudocode is a plain language description of the steps in an algorithm or another system. Pseudocode often uses structural conventions of a normal programming language, but is intended for human reading rather than machine reading. It typically omits details that are essential for machine understanding of the algorithm, such as variable declarations and language-specific code. The programming language is augmented with natural language description details, where convenient, or with compact mathematical notation. The purpose of using pseudocode is that it is easier for people to understand than conventional programming language code, and that it is an efficient and environment-independent description of the key principles of an algorithm. It is commonly used in textbooks and scientific publications to document algorithms and in planning of software and other algorithms. No broad standard for pseudocode syntax exists, as a program in pseudocode is not an executa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Halting Problem
In computability theory, the halting problem is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running, or continue to run forever. Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program–input pairs cannot exist. For any program that might determine whether programs halt, a "pathological" program , called with some input, can pass its own source and its input to ''f'' and then specifically do the opposite of what ''f'' predicts ''g'' will do. No ''f'' can exist that handles this case. A key part of the proof is a mathematical definition of a computer and program, which is known as a Turing machine; the halting problem is '' undecidable'' over Turing machines. It is one of the first cases of decision problems proven to be unsolvable. This proof is significant to practical computing efforts, defining a class of applications which no programming inventi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
