COGSCI 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Human Computer, Readwrite, If And Only If
Document Summary
The executions of algorithms that implement functions. Breakthrough #1: a minimal formalization of computation. Computers at that time were people that computed things. He called his machine a computer -- wanted to automate what a human computer was doing. Took what the humans were doing on paper and translated it to a long tape of symbols (finite set of symbols, 1 & 0) Unlimited tape divided into cells which may either be blank or have symbols. Read/write head that is position at a single cell; can read the symbol, and erase or write a symbol. State memory that stores the single current state (finite set of states) Finite transition table of instructions that determines the control of the machine. Each entry in the table tells the machine what to do based on the current state and the current symbol being read. Formalizing the minimal essence of computation: many different turing machines represented as integers .
