Evo-Info: Some Things Computers Will Never Do: Nonalgorithmic Creativity and Unknowability

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Presented at Dabney Hall on the Caltech campus, October 28, 2016 by Robert J. Marks II, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Baylor University.

Abstract:
Algorithmic information theory, spawned by Kurt Gödel, has given rise to some astonishing insights and conjectures. Stephen Hawking doubts there is a theory-of-everything in physics because of Gödel's work. Turing  showed that there are problems that cannot be solved by a computer and that determinism need not imply knowability.   Gregory Chaitin extended this work to show we can prove the existance of things that are unknowable. For example, there is a number resident on your computer, called Chaitin's number, that, when known to finite precision, can be used to solve any list of open problems in mathematics that require a single counterexample. The list of problems can include the Riemann hypothesis, Goldbach's conjecture and whether or not there is an odd perfect number. But Chaitin's number can be proven to be unknowable. Roger Penrose builds on Gödel’s results to argue that humans are not computers because, in part, of their inability to be creative. Creativity appears to be nonalgorithmic. Algorithmic specified complexity and its rarity suggest creativity is necessary for generation of meaningful information and design.

From the CalTech/JPL "Science And Faith Examined" series. To learn about other "Science And Faith Examined" events, visit the Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/scienceandfaithexamined/

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YouTube url:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm0s7ag3SEc
Created:	7. 5. 2017 13:20:34

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Evo-Info: Some Things Computers Will Never Do: Nonalgorithmic Creativity and Unknowability