Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Universal to systems so various and complex as the foundations of mathematics, cryptography, computer science, artificial intelligence, and morphogenesis is the “the concept of ‘mechanical procedure ’ (alias ‘algorithm ’ or ‘computation procedure ’ or ‘finite combinatorial procedure’). This concept is shown to be equivalent to that of a ‘Turing machine. ’ [In fact,] due to A.M. Turing’s work, a precise and unquestionably adequate definition of the general concept of formal system can now be given ” (Gödel in Davis 1965: 71–72,). For this triumph, inter alia, the world is now celebrating the centenary of the mathematician Alan Mathison Turing (1912–1954).1 The mathematical universality of the Turing machine — the abstract system of computation — implies that it is not only relevant to biolinguistic research, but intrinsic to linguistic — indeed any cognitive-neurobiological — computation. To demonstrate this is the deside-ratum of my proposed Turing Program for Linguistic Theory (TPLT). The proposal is very summary and very sketchy; I proffer no answers, only approaches to questions. One of the “Big Questions ” of the Turing Centenary (see
Source: Biolinguistics
DOI: 10.5964/bioling.8907
Author: Jeffrey Watumull
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W1510385841