794 research outputs found
Infinitely Complex Machines
Infinite machines (IMs) can do supertasks. A supertask is an infinite series of operations done in some finite time. Whether or not our universe contains any IMs, they are worthy of study as upper bounds on finite machines. We introduce IMs and describe some of their physical and psychological aspects. An accelerating Turing machine (an ATM) is a Turing machine that performs every next operation twice as fast. It can carry out infinitely many operations in finite time. Many ATMs can be connected together to form networks of infinitely powerful agents. A network of ATMs can also be thought of as the control system for an infinitely complex robot. We describe a robot with a dense network of ATMs for its retinas, its brain, and its motor controllers. Such a robot can perform psychological supertasks - it can perceive infinitely detailed objects in all their detail; it can formulate infinite plans; it can make infinitely precise movements. An endless hierarchy of IMs might realize a deep notion of intelligent computing everywhere
Towards a Church-Turing-Thesis for Infinitary Computations
We consider the question whether there is an infinitary analogue of the
Church-Turing-thesis. To this end, we argue that there is an intuitive notion
of transfinite computability and build a canonical model, called Idealized
Agent Machines (s) of this which will turn out to be equivalent in
strength to the Ordinal Turing Machines defined by P. Koepke
Signatures of Infinity: Nonergodicity and Resource Scaling in Prediction, Complexity, and Learning
We introduce a simple analysis of the structural complexity of
infinite-memory processes built from random samples of stationary, ergodic
finite-memory component processes. Such processes are familiar from the well
known multi-arm Bandit problem. We contrast our analysis with
computation-theoretic and statistical inference approaches to understanding
their complexity. The result is an alternative view of the relationship between
predictability, complexity, and learning that highlights the distinct ways in
which informational and correlational divergences arise in complex ergodic and
nonergodic processes. We draw out consequences for the resource divergences
that delineate the structural hierarchy of ergodic processes and for processes
that are themselves hierarchical.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure; http://csc.ucdavis.edu/~cmg/compmech/pubs/soi.pd
- …