Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!caen.engin.umich.edu!zarnuk
From: zarnuk@caen.engin.umich.edu (Paul Steven Mccarthy)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Machines *CAN* store real numbers.  They already do!
Keywords: real numbers, infinite precision.
Message-ID: <4938b347.1a4d7@cicada.engin.umich.edu>
Date: 16 Mar 90 05:12:00 GMT
References: <3138@usceast.UUCP> <2445@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca> <3140@usceast.UUCP> <2475@quiche.cs.mcgill.ca> <101@cogsci.ucsd.EDU>
Organization: caen (U Mich)
Lines: 9

The contention that machines cannot achieve human-levels of
sentience because they cannot calculate to infinite precision
(ie store real numbers) is misleading.

Machines _can_ store real numbers, you just have to represent them
algebraically, not in binary.  (By the way, how do people calculate
with real numbers? :-)

---Paul...