First, the Church-Turing Thesis.The Church-Turing Thesis states that, given any effective procedure or method (or algorithm) by which the value of a mathematical function can be obtained, then that same function can also be computed and its value obtained automatically by a Turing machine (see Copeland 1997, “The Thesis and its History”).To be “effective,” the algorithm or procedure must have a finite number of instructions in a finite number of steps, and could in principle be done by a...
Read More »Miguel Nicolelis and Ronald Cicurel on the Human Mind
In the video below, Miguel Nicolelis (a neuroscientist of the US Duke University) and Ronald Cicurel (a mathematician) discuss their book: Cicurel, Ronald and Miguel A. L. Nicolelis. 2015. The Relativistic Brain: How it Works and Why it Cannot Be Simulated by a Turing Machine. Kios Press, Natal, Montreux, Durham, São Paulo. [embedded content]There are too many fascinating points in this discussion to fully describe.But what is notable is their scepticism of the more grandiose aims of the...
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