Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Keith Thompson Newsgroups: comp.theory Subject: Re: Unpartial Halt Decider 4.0 Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2025 16:02:38 -0700 Organization: None to speak of Lines: 33 Message-ID: <87bjstnkdt.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> References: <6oxMP.1062942$EYs7.813360@fx12.ams4> <635d399fb69fbcd30cc5cd7938fd7b3155c7ae02@i2pn2.org> <2fa1c838ce2ee252b9abbb33d4ef31afc4020c29@i2pn2.org> <9uzMP.878827$7Fq7.697743@fx13.ams4> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2025 01:02:39 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="b62a019a496a9456e80ffe1b61d2a7b5"; logging-data="4175327"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+ANEi1gFt4lVXId2rnOvyL" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Cancel-Lock: sha1:pnuLxB5e2ahErsAd4QwrtoxIQsM= sha1:Wjkim+VoEfWojcDidmxPt7FwLZc= Mr Flibble writes: > On Fri, 18 Apr 2025 17:15:40 -0400, Richard Damon wrote: >> And the rules of the game are that deciders must answer in finite time. > > Your perspective is: > > Epistemic: knowledge must be actionable, and thus based on finite > computation. > > Pragmatic: we need results in time, so knowing whether we’re in a loop is > more valuable than being able to analyze an infinite thing in an infinite > way. > > This is totally reasonable — but my perspective is: > > Not speaking about physical feasibility. I'm working in the theoretical > realm — just as Turing did. You are working on a different problem, one that seems related to the Halting Problem but is not the same thing. The problem you're working on seems to be a variant of the Halting Problem with the hard parts removed or quietly ignored. Whatever you might come up with will not change the perfectly valid proof that the Halting Problem *as it's normally defined* is not solvable. It's conceivable that you might come up with something interesting or useful, maybe even both. But I've seen no evidence of that so far. -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */