There is a school of thought that assumes that all intellectual problems can potentially be solved by computers [for example, see ‘The Future of Philosophy is Cyborg’, by Phil Torres in Issue 141]. However, is this really the case? Here I will try to explain why we do not know where the limits of computability are, and how this lack of knowledge affects our understanding in a number of areas.
Roughly, we can say that a computable (or solvable) problem is any problem that can be solved by a finite set of simple actions. Alternatively, we could say that a computable problem is anything that can be reduced to a mathematical equation and solved accordingly. For example, if someone has to travel to a number of towns and has to schedule her trip so that she has to go through each town only once, this is a mathematical problem. One may say that at first this does not look like a mathematical problem; but we can reduce it to, or transform it into, a mathematical problem (in topology). And if the number of towns that our pilgrim has to travel is small enough, then it is relatively easy to compute an answer. But when the number of towns becomes large enough, then it might not be possible to come up with a road map that goes through each town only once.
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The Two Dennises
Hannah Mortimer observes a close encounter of the same kind.
Heraclitus (c.500 BC)
Harry Keith lets flow a stream of ideas about permanence and change.
Does the Cosmos Have a Purpose?
Raymond Tallis argues intently against universal intention.
Is Driving Fossil-Fuelled Cars Immoral?
Rufus Duits asks when we can justify driving our carbon contributors.
Abelard & Carneades Yes & No
Frank Breslin says 'yes and no' to presenting both sides of an argument.
Frankl & Sartre in Search of Meaning
Georgia Arkell compares logotherapy and atheistic existentialism.
Luce Irigaray
Luce Irigaray, now ninety-two years old, was, among many other things, one of the most impactful feminists of the 1970s liberation movements - before she was marginalised, then ostracised, from the francophone intellectual sphere.
Significance
Ruben David Azevedo tells us why, in a limitless universe, we’re not insignificant.
The Present Is Not All There Is To Happiness
Rob Glacier says don’t just live in the now.
Philosophers Exploring The Good Life
Jim Mepham quests with philosophers to discover what makes a life good.