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From: weigand@kub.nl (Hans Weigand)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: TM's (Was: Re: Searle and Radical Translation)
Summary: differences between TMs and computers
Message-ID: <1264@kubix.kub.nl>
Date: 12 Sep 90 08:45:44 GMT
References: <628@ntpdvp1.UUCP> <6889@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Lines: 12

Another difference between TMs and actual computers is in the
real time constraints of the latter. For TMs, no speed is specified
(it abstracts away from it). Hence for *practical* purposes, Turing
equivalence is not very helpful.

It is often overlooked that Church Thesis talks about effective functions,
which is a mathematical idea (not a concept, it is not rigorously defined).
It does not apply to biological processes such as eating or thinking. 

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Hans Weigand
Tilburg University (NL)