[Liverpool] Liverpool LUG Meetup / Social - 3rd December 2008

[Simon Johnson]

I could do a quick talk (but I'd have to prepare it really quickly) on the
theoretical limits of computation.

A brief outline:

   - Introduction
   - The incomputability of the reals
      - Cantor's theory of transfinite sets.
      - Proof that 100% of the reals are incomputable. (this is likely to be
      the most time consuming bit, but it is probably the most
interesting bit of
      any talk.)
      - Weakly incomputable reals.
         - Square Root of 2.
      - Strongly incomputable reals.
         - The probability that a random Python program halts.
         - P vs NP
   - The halting problem.
   - The busy beaver sequence.


If there's sufficient interest, I can whip something up before Wednesday. It
gives me another change to enhance my public speaking skills :)

Bear in mind that I am not an expert in this topic so coming to this talk
may in fact make you *dumber* than you were before. But hey, we're just a
LUG not a a research institute.

Simon.
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