We discuss combining physical experiments with machine computations and introduce a form of analogue-digital Turing machine. We examine in detail a case study where an experimental procedure based on Newtonian kinematics is combined with a class of Turing machines. Three forms of analogue-digital machine are studied, in which physical parameters can be set exactly and approximately. Using non-uniform complexity theory, and some probability, we prove theorems that show that these machines can compute more than classical Turing machines. 1

It is shown that the concept of a Universal Computer cannot be realized. Specifically, instances of a computable function F are exhibited that cannot be computed on any machine U that is capable of only a finite and fixed number of operations per step. This remains true even if the machine U is endowed with an infinite memory and the ability to communicate with the outside world while it is attempting to compute F. It also remains true if, in addition, U is given an indefinite amount of time to compute F. This result applies not only to idealized models of computation, such as the Turing Machine and the like, but also to all known general-purpose computers, including existing conventional computers, as well as contemplated ones such as quantum computers.

Abstract. In this paper we will try to understand how oracles and advice functions, which are mathematical abstractions in the theory of computability and complexity, can be seen as physical measurements in Classical Physics. First, we consider how physical measurements are a natural external source of information to an algorithmic computation. We argue that oracles and advice functions can help us to understand how the structure of space and time has information content that can be processed by Turing machines (after Cooper and Odifreddi [10] and Copeland and Proudfoot [11, 12]). We show that non-uniform complexity is an adequate framework for classifying feasible computations by Turing machines interacting with an oracle in Nature. By classifying the information content of such an oracle using Kolmogorov complexity, we obtain a hierarchical structure for advice classes. 1

In 1950, Turing suggested that intelligent behavior might require “a departure from the completely disciplined behaviour involved in computation”, but nothing that a digital computer could not do. In this paper, I want to explore Turing’s suggestion by asking what it is, beyond computation, that intelligence might require, why it might require it and what knowing the answers to the first two questions might do to help us understand artificial and natural intelligence.

The term ‘hypermachine ’ denotes any data processing device (theoretical or that can be implemented) capable of carrying out tasks that cannot be performed by a Turing machine. We present a possible quantum algorithm for a classically non-computable decision problem, Hilbert’s tenth problem; more specifically, we present a possible hypercomputation model based on quantum computation. Our algorithm is inspired by the one proposed by Tien D. Kieu, but we have selected the infinite square well instead of the (one-dimensional) simple harmonic oscillator as the underlying physical system. Our model exploits the quantum adiabatic process and the characteristics of the representation of the dynamical Lie algebra su(1, 1) associated to the infinite square well.

We overview different approaches to the study of hypercomputation and other investigations on the plausibility of the physical Church–Turing thesis. We propose five thesis to classify investigation in this area. Sly does it. Tiptoe catspaws. Slide and creep.

Recent works have independently suggested that quantum mechanics might permit procedures that fundamentally transcend the power of Turing Machines as well as of ‘standard ’ Quantum Computers. These approaches rely on and indicate that quantum mechanics seems to support some infinite variant of classical parallel computing. We compare this new one with other attempts towards hypercomputation by separating (1) its computing capabilities from (2) realizability issues. The first are shown to coincide with recursive enumerability; the second are considered in analogy to ‘existence’ in mathematical logic. KEY WORDS: Hypercomputation; quantum mechanics; recursion theory; infinite parallelism.

The last century saw dramatic challenges to the Laplacian predictability which had underpinned scientific research for around 300 years. Basic to this was Alan Turing’s 1936 discovery (along with Alonzo Church) of the existence of unsolvable problems. This paper focuses on incomputability as a powerful theme in Turing’s work and personal life, and examines its role in his evolving concept of machine intelligence. It also traces some of the ways in which important new developments are anticipated by Turing’s ideas in logic.

The Essential Turing is a selection of writings of the

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