22 Nov
2003
22 Nov
'03
4:18 a.m.
On Thu, 20 Nov 2003, der Mouse wrote:
Again, analog computers are not computers in a Turing sense or any sense
in which we think of digital computers. In this case, "analog" is not an
opposite of "digital". It means that you design an analog of something
you are attempting to model using for example electricity, water, etc.
Think of them as physical "simulators" rather than computers.
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I'd say
that if you can implement a simulation of a universal Turing
machine so that the range of it's computations is limited only by the
amount of addressable memory, then you have a real computer.
Very nicely put - and aside from leaving analog computers out in the
cold, I think I basically agree with it.