On Jan 23, 2010, at 4:11 AM, FERENC KOVACS wrote:
Rob, Chris,
It is nice to read that AI representatives have their own paradigm of the limits of computability and undecideability, surely a highly technical formulation of a very simple problem common to everyday experience.
"AI representatives" no more have their own paradigm of the limits of computability than they have their own paradigm of what it is for a number to be prime. Computability and (un)decidability are objectively defined concepts in mathematical logic and computer science and to demonstrate that a function is computable or that a problem is decidable or undecidable is (once again) no different in kind that proving that a given number is prime. "Simple problem[s] of everyday experience" will typically not have any bearing on questions of computability and (un)decidability. Of course, there might be analogies of these notions in everyday experience — but they are typically not going to be the same concepts.
Chris Menzel