How computability depends on notation?
- Speaker(s)
- Michał Wrocławski
- Affiliation
- Uniwersytet Warszawski
- Date
- Dec. 18, 2019, 2:15 p.m.
- Room
- room 5050
- Seminar
- Seminar Automata Theory
We study abstract notations for natural numbers, which may differ from
standard notations, so that the functions and relations classically
uncomputable become computable, and vice versa. This question was
raised by a philosopher Stewart Shapiro in course of the debate on
Church-Turing thesis.
We discover that in some notations the standard ordering of natural
numbers is computable, but successor is not; or multiplication is
computable, whereas addition and exponentiation are not. Apart from
surprising counter-examples, we search for a general theory,
explaining how computability of some functions and relations may
induce computability of some others.