Comment by brap
6 months ago
At some point you gotta wonder if there’s even a difference between “stops after N” and “never stops”.
I mean obviously there is, it’s the same difference between N and infinity. But… is there really?
6 months ago
At some point you gotta wonder if there’s even a difference between “stops after N” and “never stops”.
I mean obviously there is, it’s the same difference between N and infinity. But… is there really?
In a mathematical sense - absolutely. You can dual halting problem against many very tangible qualities - like whether a (proved) statement is true or false. A (large-n) halting program is closer to an instantly halting program not just because n is always closer to 0 than inf, but because 'large n halting' and 'instantly halting' are ontologically similar in a way they just aren't with unhalting programs.
Welcome to ultrafinitism!
Well since we got off the Gold standard, we might need those big numbers.