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From: mac@uvacs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: the halting problem in history
Message-ID: <1048@uvacs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 19:28:21 EST
Article-I.D.: uvacs.1048
Posted: Wed Nov  9 19:28:21 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Nov-83 13:35:59 EST
Lines: 11



   If there were any 'subroutines' in the brain that could not
   halt... I'm sure they would have been found and bred out of
   the species long ago.  I have yet to see anyone die from
   an infinite loop. (umcp-cs.3451)

There is such.  It is caused by seeing an object called the Zahir.  One was
a Persian astrolabe, which was cast into the sea lest men forget the world.
Another was a certain tiger.  Around 1900 it was a coin in Buenos Aires.
Details in "The Zahir", J.L.Borges.