FOM: More on conclusiveness of proofs

Kanovei kanovei at wminf2.math.uni-wuppertal.de
Wed Dec 17 09:00:05 EST 1997


>	Let's take a list with the letters of
>	our alphabet and count how many of them
>	we have. Let's do this count ten times.
>	Do we get the same number always?

Count accurately and you will be allright (10 times). 
However in long run (9^9^...^9 times), whichever 
counting mechanism you use, you may eventually 
encounter problems because by quantum mechanical laws 
your counting units will sometimes (very rarely) 
disappear or appear in bigger quantity than expected. 

The problems with this example are 
1) educational: how to educate people so that 
   they count accurately 
2) (theory of computations)'al: find algorithms which 
   suppress the mentioned QM phenomenon and the like. 

Vladimir Kanovei



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