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Erschienen in:
Introduction Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

2011 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

9. The Soft Machine

verfasst von : Derek Partridge

Erschienen in: The Seductive Computer

Verlag: Springer London

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Abstract

There is no valid reason to limit the notion of a machine to hard ­components. A computer program is a machine, a soft machine. An IT system is composed of a hard machine (usually electronic components) and a soft machine, a computer program. In principle, the relative mix of hard and soft components in an IT system is entirely arbitrary. In practice, IT systems are primarily soft machines. The soft machine becomes grounded within the hard components of an IT system (the computer hardware), and the IT system as a whole is then grounded by the context in which it is used, and its inputs and outputs are interpreted. Even this initial grounding, which cannot be avoided for a soft machine, wrecks the scope for formal proofs of IT system correctness.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Hooptedoodle 1 – The Proof of the Science is in the Pudding
Nächstes Kapitel Computers Only Do as They’re Told
Fußnoten
1
This quotation comes from an article by J. Horgan in IEEE Spectrum , April 1992.
 
2
In the context of the grounding problem (a subject initiated in Chapter 7 ), the hardware computer tends to intrude on a ‘full’ understanding of the program-computer machine in just those cases where grounding is equivocal – e.g., when timing is important or when the necessary real-number concerns stray into the holes and inaccuracies of the hardware approximations.
 
3
C. A. R. Hoare, a professor of Computing at Oxford University has written of “correct ­implementations” by which he means that the soft machine can be transformed into a ‘hard’ (i.e. real-world) machine with no changes in its behaviour. But even when we agree to exclude the unavoidable difference between the fallibility of all real-world mechanisms and the potential for infallibility of abstract mechanisms, there is still a variety of detailed reasons why this ‘perfect transformation’ can never be realised. Nelson, for example, describes the inevitable differences between the soft machines that dominate modern computer technology and the ‘hard’ machines of modern electronics technology. The article is, “ Deductive Program Verification (a Practitioner’s Commentary)” in Minds and Machines , vol. 2, pp. 283–307, 1992.
As the earlier chapter on grounding symbol structures made quite clear, although the computer scientist creates his own world, the fact that it must operate in reality means that there are no correct implementations of the abstract symbol-manipulation schemes – where ‘correct’ here means that perfect grounding is obtained, i.e., the programs grounded in real computers behave in precisely the same way as the abstract program whose behaviour has been proven to be correct.
To illustrate this issue with a familiar example: the mathematics of collisions of perfect, inelastic spheres – i.e., the activity for which practical proficiency is one of the signs of a misspent youth – is well developed and would allow us to prove that a given configuration of snooker balls may be cleared in one break with a series of precisely specified cue strokes. The fact is, of course, this series of strokes, even if precisely carried out by a Dalek (hustler model) will not, in reality, guarantee that the table will be cleared.
The problem resides in the lamentable fact that the equipment designers and manufacturers haven’t produced a correct implementation of the abstract mathematical scheme. Table cushions do not give precisely the same bounce everywhere. The balls are not perfect spheres, they are not inelastic, and sometimes they’re dusty, etc.
The inventor of the perfect snooker-playing robot may wish to complain that the reason why his provably perfect player does not win any tournaments is that the table and ball designers have not yet done a good enough job. There is some truth in this charge, but it would be the height of foolishness to continue refining the perfection of cue-shot calculation and execution by his robot while awaiting the emergence of a correct implementation of the mathematics – a perfect snooker table. There are computer scientists who are, in effect, doing just this.
 
Metadaten
Titel
The Soft Machine
verfasst von
Derek Partridge
Copyright-Jahr
2011
Verlag
Springer London
Buch
The Seductive Computer

Print ISBN: 978-1-84996-497-5

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-84996-498-2

Copyright-Jahr: 2011

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-498-2_9