Much more interesting is what we can compute without Turing completeness.
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My computer can fall into an infinite loop even though it doesn't have infinite storage (to emulate an infinite tape of a Turing machine).
I think our disagreement is specious because it’s trying to import terms like “infinite loop”, “halt”, “program” from a formal theory into the material world.
I think I can only ask, how do you define infinite loop and forever?
Yes. A computer can be in an infinite loop, lose power, and then stop functioning.
>how do you define infinite loop and forever
Infinite Loop: A system is in an infinite loop when that system keeps returning to the same state making it unable to progress (depending on the context the definition might change to where making progress is okay and it in only returning to a partial match of an existing state (think of an echo server for example))
Forever: A time period that ranges from t=now to t=infinity.
Ok. Are these claims accurate?
1. All physical systems must eventually halt.
2. In many cases physical systems correspond to formal computational systems.
> Infinite Loop: A system is in an infinite loop when that system keeps returning to the same state making it unable to progress
A system is called deterministic if all future states can be calculated from complete knowledge of any particular state.
So then because the system is deterministic, we know that if it returns to a previous state it must keep returning to this state forever?
> Forever: A time period that ranges from t=now to t=infinity.
Right, it’s a period of time, but the word “infinity” is not clarifying for me. Maybe, a period of time with no end?
In terms of physical computers I don't agree with must, but I will say there is a very high chance that it will. In terms of an arbitrary physical system something like gravity doesn't just halt.
>In many cases physical systems correspond to formal computational systems.
It is possible to model physical systems. It can also be useful to reason about a simplified model of something.
>So then because the system is deterministic, we know that if it returns to a previous state it must keep returning to this state forever?
Assuming it's deterministic then yes. Depending on how complicated your model is it may be hard to go back to a state you were in before.
>Maybe, a period of time with no end?
Sure.
Not really. A plain turing machine only has one input and one output over the lifetime of the execution.
> certainly any TC system has the capacity to keep track of time if the pieces are manipulated at a constant rate.
Only if the turing-equivalent machine is iterating at a specific rate and can pause. Lots of these systems run through the entire machine in a single shot and can't manage timing.
https://everything2.com/title/Tetris+complete
Tetris Completion extends Turing Completion by adding the minimum requirements for a functional implementation of Tetris. From the link above:
* a display with at least 20 rows and 10 columns, and enough read/write random access memory to store the current contents of the display,
* a way of repainting one row or column of the display without affecting the others,
* a timer with a resolution of at least 100 milliseconds
* a small set of keys whose state can be read without blocking execution, which for Tetris are left, right, clockwise, and anticlockwise
* a linear bounded automaton programmed for the particular puzzle game