Infinite time Turing machines and an application to the hierarchy of equivalence relations on the reals

We describe the basic theory of infinite time Turing machines and some recent developments, including the infinite time degree theory, infinite time complexity theory, and infinite time computable model theory. We focus particularly on the application of infinite time Turing machines to the analysis of the hierarchy of equivalence relations on the reals, in analogy with the theory arising from Borel reducibility. We define a notion of infinite time reducibility, which lifts much of the Borel theory into the class $\bm{\Delta}^1_2$ in a satisfying way.Comment: Submitted to the Effective Mathematics of the Uncountable Conference, 200

Game interpretation of Kolmogorov complexity

The Kolmogorov complexity function K can be relativized using any oracle A, and most properties of K remain true for relativized versions. In section 1 we provide an explanation for this observation by giving a game-theoretic interpretation and showing that all "natural" properties are either true for all sufficiently powerful oracles or false for all sufficiently powerful oracles. This result is a simple consequence of Martin's determinacy theorem, but its proof is instructive: it shows how one can prove statements about Kolmogorov complexity by constructing a special game and a winning strategy in this game. This technique is illustrated by several examples (total conditional complexity, bijection complexity, randomness extraction, contrasting plain and prefix complexities).Comment: 11 pages. Presented in 2009 at the conference on randomness in Madison

Kolmogorov Complexity in perspective. Part I: Information Theory and Randomnes

We survey diverse approaches to the notion of information: from Shannon entropy to Kolmogorov complexity. Two of the main applications of Kolmogorov complexity are presented: randomness and classification. The survey is divided in two parts in the same volume. Part I is dedicated to information theory and the mathematical formalization of randomness based on Kolmogorov complexity. This last application goes back to the 60's and 70's with the work of Martin-L\"of, Schnorr, Chaitin, Levin, and has gained new impetus in the last years.Comment: 40 page

Noncomputable functions in the Blum-Shub-Smale model

Working in the Blum-Shub-Smale model of computation on the real numbers, we answer several questions of Meer and Ziegler. First, we show that, for each natural number d, an oracle for the set of algebraic real numbers of degree at most d is insufficient to allow an oracle BSS-machine to decide membership in the set of algebraic numbers of degree d + 1. We add a number of further results on relative computability of these sets and their unions. Then we show that the halting problem for BSS-computation is not decidable below any countable oracle set, and give a more specific condition, related to the cardinalities of the sets, necessary for relative BSS-computability. Most of our results involve the technique of using as input a tuple of real numbers which is algebraically independent over both the parameters and the oracle of the machine

On approximate decidability of minimal programs

An index $e$ in a numbering of partial-recursive functions is called minimal if every lesser index computes a different function from $e$. Since the 1960's it has been known that, in any reasonable programming language, no effective procedure determines whether or not a given index is minimal. We investigate whether the task of determining minimal indices can be solved in an approximate sense. Our first question, regarding the set of minimal indices, is whether there exists an algorithm which can correctly label 1 out of $k$ indices as either minimal or non-minimal. Our second question, regarding the function which computes minimal indices, is whether one can compute a short list of candidate indices which includes a minimal index for a given program. We give some negative results and leave the possibility of positive results as open questions

On the necessity of complexity

Wolfram's Principle of Computational Equivalence (PCE) implies that universal complexity abounds in nature. This paper comprises three sections. In the first section we consider the question why there are so many universal phenomena around. So, in a sense, we week a driving force behind the PCE if any. We postulate a principle GNS that we call the Generalized Natural Selection Principle that together with the Church-Turing Thesis is seen to be equivalent to a weak version of PCE. In the second section we ask the question why we do not observe any phenomena that are complex but not-universal. We choose a cognitive setting to embark on this question and make some analogies with formal logic. In the third and final section we report on a case study where we see rich structures arise everywhere.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Instruction sequence processing operators

Instruction sequence is a key concept in practice, but it has as yet not come prominently into the picture in theoretical circles. This paper concerns instruction sequences, the behaviours produced by them under execution, the interaction between these behaviours and components of the execution environment, and two issues relating to computability theory. Positioning Turing's result regarding the undecidability of the halting problem as a result about programs rather than machines, and taking instruction sequences as programs, we analyse the autosolvability requirement that a program of a certain kind must solve the halting problem for all programs of that kind. We present novel results concerning this autosolvability requirement. The analysis is streamlined by using the notion of a functional unit, which is an abstract state-based model of a machine. In the case where the behaviours exhibited by a component of an execution environment can be viewed as the behaviours of a machine in its different states, the behaviours concerned are completely determined by a functional unit. The above-mentioned analysis involves functional units whose possible states represent the possible contents of the tapes of Turing machines with a particular tape alphabet. We also investigate functional units whose possible states are the natural numbers. This investigation yields a novel computability result, viz. the existence of a universal computable functional unit for natural numbers.Comment: 37 pages; missing equations in table 3 added; combined with arXiv:0911.1851 [cs.PL] and arXiv:0911.5018 [cs.LO]; introduction and concluding remarks rewritten; remarks and examples added; minor error in proof of theorem 4 correcte