Boolean Functions and Computation Models
Mar 2013 · Springer Science & Business Media
Ebook
602
Pages
reportRatings and reviews aren’t verified Learn More
About this ebook
The foundations of computational complexity theory go back to Alan Thring in the 1930s who was concerned with the existence of automatic procedures deciding the validity of mathematical statements. The first example of such a problem was the undecidability of the Halting Problem which is essentially the question of debugging a computer program: Will a given program eventu ally halt? Computational complexity today addresses the quantitative aspects of the solutions obtained: Is the problem to be solved tractable? But how does one measure the intractability of computation? Several ideas were proposed: A. Cobham [Cob65] raised the question of what is the right model in order to measure a "computation step" , M. Rabin [Rab60] proposed the introduction of axioms that a complexity measure should satisfy, and C. Shannon [Sha49] suggested the boolean circuit that computes a boolean function. However, an important question remains: What is the nature of computa tion? In 1957, John von Neumann [vN58] wrote in his notes for the Silliman Lectures concerning the nature of computation and the human brain that . . . logics and statistics should be primarily, although not exclusively, viewed as the basic tools of 'information theory'. Also, that body of experience which has grown up around the planning, evaluating, and coding of complicated logical and mathematical automata will be the focus of much of this information theory. The most typical, but not the only, such automata are, of course, the large electronic computing machines.
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
