Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with turing

"Ludwig the last crumpet was mine!"

greytape — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:38:12 -0800

StoryresearchFilter: Information needed on relations between superstar Cambridge dons of the 1930s-1950s. i.e. Russell, Wittgenstein, Turing, Keynes. I'm trying to write a short story that involves these four men. To this end I'm looking for information on the relationships between them, and any other genuine superstars that I might have missed that were hanging around Cambridge between these years .

I love this quote from Wikipedia:

"Bertrand Russell named Keynes the most intelligent person he had ever known, commenting, "Every time I argued with Keynes, I felt that I took my life in my hands, and I seldom emerged without feeling something of a fool." Keynes also famously commented to his wife that he had "met God on the 5:15 train" when he received Russell's protégé Ludwig Wittgenstein on behalf of Cambridge." I'd love to capture something of this spirit.

Obviously what I need to do is get the relative biographies out of the library and turn to the index, which I will do as soon as I get to a library, but in the meantime I have a bit of time on my hands and would like to do some online research.

Therefore I'm looking for anecdotes, paths to follow, recommended books or documentaries that might shed a little light on the lives of these tweedsuited Gods. Or if any of them has previosuy been depicted in fiction, that'd be good to know.

P.S. I'd also be interested to know if there has ever been a similar accumulation of talent in one place at one time, it seems extraordinary to me that not only were all these great men in the same university at the same time but that they were personal friends.
P.P.S. I've already read "Wittgenstein's Poker", that's partly what gave me the idea. Oh and Cryptonomicon, which depicts Turing in fiction.

Can Robots Use Chopsticks?

qbxk — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:09:25 -0800

Can robots use chopsticks? Over lunch, I wondered if we've yet programmed a robot to use chopsticks. Could this be an Iron Turing Test?

Use of chopsticks on any object are acceptable, images or movies are preferred. Bonus points for anthropomorphic robots captured in the act of "eating".

What is the minimum number of states in a Universal Turing Machine?

-harlequin- — Sun, 01 May 2005 04:09:43 -0800

What is the absolute minimum number of states required in a Turing Machine (that uses binary tape) for it to be able to serve as a Universal Turing Machine? More generally, what is the simplest "spec" for a Universal Turing Machine (UTM)? I'm looking into designing a visual aid to help explain the Turing machine, and I want the system it depicts to be as simple as possible, yet sufficient (in theory at least) to operate as a UTM. I don't expect the aid will normally, if ever, be used to demonstrate a UTM, but it would be nice to be able to say "and this is all you need to do any computation", so if there is a choice between a "person-useable" minimum number of states, and a "extreme optimised to the point of obfuscation" minimum number of states, I'd lead towards the later unless the difference is just one or two states.

Also of interest - what would be the minimum states for a UTM using a 3-symbol tape?

(The internet is loaded with UTM information, and references to "a minimum finite number of states" abound, but nothing seems to mention what that number actually happens to be, and I don't really have the time or the ability to reinvent the wheel)

How is a Turing-complete/equivalent language defined ?

XiBe — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 08:05:28 -0800

I always thought "Turing-complete programming language" meant you could write a compiler/interpreter/whatever for that language IN that language, ie. XML is not, XSLT is, C++ is for sure, I guess JavaScript could in a way...
Today I tried to check on that, and apparently it's much more abstract... or something... well I don't know for sure.
Was I wrong ? How is a Turing-complete/equivalent language defined ?