most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-23T11:56:37Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/user/14183 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/60851/is-modern-computability-theory-really-about-algorithms Michelle B 2011-04-06T20:25:26Z 2011-04-07T20:23:19Z

<p>Apologies if my question seems overly naive, but I haven't seen/heard/read any good answers. </p> <p>What is modern computability theory "really" about? The study of feasible(even <em>remotely</em> feasible) algorithms falls under the domain of theoretical and non-theoretical computer science. There is, of course, the a posteriori fact that computability theory tells us a lot about the structure of the natural numbers(I'm thinking of Turing degrees, etc). But, from a certain perspective, this can be seen as a historical coincidence. (I'm not saying that this is necessarily a "correct" perspective). </p> <p>So what is the motivation for the subject of modern computability theory?</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/60851/is-modern-computability-theory-really-about-algorithms Michelle B 2011-04-07T17:48:07Z 2011-04-07T17:48:07Z

Thank you Gerhard, Carl, and Jason for providing me with some things to think about. (And Francois Dorais also for the joke!) My initial studies in this area were interesting, but I found it hard to see the bigger picture, as nobody at my institution is active in this subject and(again, I hope that this does not come across as too naive) it seems that this area is very &quot;spread out&quot; for its size(in terms of researchers, institutions, places to get an overview, etc), even compared to areas like, say, model theory. I will wait to see if any more answers come in, but thanks again.