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Glen wrote:
> So, I already asked this; but, the conversation really needs a clear
> understanding of what we mean by "computation". Perhaps we could split
> it into two categories: computation_c would indicate the activities of
> a concrete machine and computation_a would indicate the (supposed)
> activities of a universal turing machine.
>
I was just entertaining the idea that the mutability of a real machine
would facilitate new kinds of calculations. That being said, it isn't
obvious to me this is of conceptual importance or any conspicuous
examples of otherwise uncalculatable things. Maybe to get a true random
number source, or to build an analog circuit that calculated a simple
recursive function with extremely high fidelity? As the theorist can
work out an idea on a whiteboard and talk it over with a colleague, one
might imagine a digital planning program might do the same, and then
send off the design to an fabrication facility, then use it.
Marcus
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