User: discadence (posted by cadence) Date: 2008-08-06 00:19 Subject: Cadence's lecture hall: The Turing test, Turing machines, and computability Security: Public Mood: teaching!

So, I studied computer science, right? And it has often come to my attention over the years that many people have no real idea what that actually is. >_> I mean, I can say "I write code," but even then, I had a teammate once who had no idea what that meant - she thought I, I don't know, knew how to work Word really well, or something. I had to work really hard to explain that no, it was more like writing the instructions that made Word (for example) or even Windows (I did take an OS class) exist.

I am going to assume that most of my flist at least knows that much - that I write code, and by that I don't mean HTML, I mean the actual instructions that make computers do things.

HOWEVER. A lot of the really cool parts of CS are the theoretical parts. I took several classes in which I wrote no code at all, and they were some of my favorites. CS theory has a lot in common with math, logic, and even philosophy - it's about what problems can be solved, and how. And I kind of miss talking about it. So, I thought I'd try to share some of the interesting bits with people.

To start, let's talk a bit about ( Alan Turing )

( the Turing test )

( and Turing machines )

Next time (if anyone is at all interested in a next time): Time bounds on algorithms. Sorting. NP-completeness.

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