Reading 5: The halting problem
This assignment is due on Sunday, December 8 at 11:59pm. Don’t bullshit.
When you follow the link above with your browser, you should see Aaronson’s article, as well as a button “<” in the upper-right corner. Use the “<” button to expand the annotation sidebar.
You may need to log in to Hypothesis, using the account you created in Reading 1: Limitations of artificial intelligence.
**Pay attention to this next step**. This is a common mistake that results in many zeros on the assignment. After logging in, you are not done. You still have to expand the drop-down menu “Public” in the top right sidebar, make sure it says “my groups”, and change it to our course group “211”.
You belong to this group because you used the invite
link in Reading 1: Limitations of artificial intelligence. If you don’t post to this group, then other students
won’t see your annotations, and you won’t get credit.
If your question is about the article: Carefully select exactly the relevant passages, and Annotate them with your question.
If your question is about the video: Notice the time in the video (minutes and seconds), and create a New page note that begins with minutes:seconds (for example 1:23), followed by your question.
Make your question clear, descriptive, and specific.
Don’t be too brief, terse, or vague. Don’t just say “What’s this” or “I don’t understand”.
Don’t just summarize.
Don’t ask a question that’s answered in the article.
Exercise 4. Once you have added your question, respond to someone else.
Optional: Read about the Bignum Bakeoff, a contest to write a short program (512 characters) that generates the biggest number.