Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Richard Heathfield Newsgroups: comp.theory Subject: Re: Turing Machine computable functions apply finite string transformations to inputs VERIFIED FACT Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:46:54 +0100 Organization: Fix this later Lines: 44 Message-ID: References: <0a2eeee6cb4b6a737f6391c963386745a09c8a01@i2pn2.org> <4818688e0354f32267e3a5f3c60846ae7956bed2@i2pn2.org> <65dddfad4c862e6593392eaf27876759b1ed0e69@i2pn2.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Injection-Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:47:00 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="a99ce2d194518084f1e3236eb6fd133d"; logging-data="1998541"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18eONTxILASekOXXLDvNbK0p7XaJ2JeYCQl0vkHh/xwZw==" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:3OV4Ueftg9I1y38CY1jZMt0miVo= In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-GB On 29/04/2025 14:11, olcott wrote: > On 4/29/2025 2:10 AM, Richard Heathfield wrote: >> On 29/04/2025 03:50, olcott wrote: >>> Yet it is H(P,D) and NOT P(D) that must be measured. >> >> Nothing /has/ to be measured. P's behaviour (halts, doesn't >> halt) when given D as input must be /established/. > > No H can possibly see the behavior of P(D) It doesn't have to. It only has to be able to read two tapes, one containing P and the other containing D. > when-so-ever D has defined a pathological > relationship with H this changes the behavior > of P so that it is not the same as P(D). D has no relationship with H. D is just a list of data symbols on a Turing Machine tape. P, too, is a list of symbols - a program. You don't have to run it to read it. H's job is not to run P but to analyse P to determine whether P would halt if fed D as input. The behaviour that P would exhibit if fed D is determined only by the symbols on the P-tape and the D-tape. H is neither here nor there. If H elects to run P as part of its job, fine, but it's not obligatory and does not give H licence to change P, change D, or reject either tape. H /must/ report, correctly, for /any/ P/D pair. And it can't, as you rightly conceded when you wrote: "Computing the actual behavior the direct execution of any input is ALWAYS IMPOSSIBLE". -- Richard Heathfield Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999 Sig line 4 vacant - apply within