9.1 Zeno Machines

A Zeno machine is a Turing machine which computes with “increased speed". Two time scales act simultaneously: the intrinsic time scale of the process of computation approaches the infinity in a finite extrinsic (or proper) time of some outside observer, cf. Svozil [ 130 ]. As a consequence, certain uncomputable functions (i.e. functions which cannot be computed by any Turing machine) become Zeno computable. For example, the halting problem – the most notorious unsolvable problem in classical computation theory (see, for example, Odifreddi [ 106 ]) is Zeno solvable.

Zeno machines have been introduced by Weyl [ 137 ] (see Svozil [ 130 ] for a bibliography on this subject). Already Weyl raised the question whether it is kinematically feasible for a machine to carry out an infinite sequence of operations in a finite time. He wrote [ 137 ], p. 42:
Yet, if the segment of length 1 really consists of infinitely many subsegments of length , as of ‘chopped-off’ wholes, then it is incompatible with the character of the infinite as the ‘incompletable’ that Achilles should have been able to traverse them all. If one admits this possibility, then there is no reason why a machine should not be capable of completing an infinite sequence of distinct acts of decision within a finite amount of time; say, by supplying the first result after minute, the second after another minute, the third minute later than the second, etc. In this way it would be possible, provided the receptive power of the brain would function similarly, to achieve a traversal of all natural numbers and thereby a sure yes-or-no decision regarding any existential question about natural numbers!
A possible construction of a Zeno machine starts with a normal Turing machine and considers two time scales, and as follows:
The proper time measures the physical system time by clocks in an usual way.
A discrete cycle time characterizes an “intrinsic" time scale for a process running on the machine.
For some unspecified reason we assume that the machine allows us to “squeeze" its intrinsic time with respect to the proper time by a geometric progression. For we let any time cycle of , if measured in terms of , to be “squeezed" by a factor of with respect to the foregoing time cycle. More precisely,

that is


In the limit when approaches the infinity, the proper time approaches , so it remains finite.

There is no commonly accepted classical physical principle which would,
a priori, forbid such a behaviour. One might argue that such an “oracle" would require a geometric energy increase resulting in an infinite consumption of energy. Yet, no currently accepted classical physical principle excludes us from assuming that every geometric decrease in cycle time could be associated with a geometric progression in energy consumption, at least up to some limiting (e.g. Planck) scale.

So, classical physics doesn’t forbid the existence of Zeno machines. However,
classical logic does. A simple diagonalization argument, which mimics the undecidability of the halting problem, shows that Zeno machines are logically impossible. Consider an arbitrary algorithm whose input is a binary string . Assume, for the sake of a contradiction, that there exists an effective halting algorithm HALT, implementable on a Zeno machine, which is able to decide whether eventually stops on or not. Using HALT we shall construct another Zeno machine , which has as an input a program and which proceeds as follows: Upon reading the program as an input, makes a copy of it. In the next step, our machine uses the code as an input string for itself, that is, forms , henceforth denoted by . The machine hands over to its subroutine HALT. Then, proceeds as follows:
if HALT decides that eventually halts, then does not halt,
if HALT decides that never halts, then halts.
What about using on its own code as input? Notice that is arbitrary, so there is no restriction to prevent us for doing this! Consequently, , which is representable by its code will be applied to itself.

Assume that classically
is restricted to classical bits of information. Then, whenever halts, HALT forces not to halt, and conversely, whenever does not halt, then HALT steers into the halting state. In both cases one arrives at a contradiction, therefore, Zeno machines are logically inconsistent.

What about the case when
is allowed a qubit _of information. Assume that and are the halting and nonhalting states, respectively. The computation can be performed if receives as an input a qubit corresponding to the fixed point state of the NOT operator :

A simple computation shows that

The qubit solution proves the impossibility of to control the output as the probability to reach a halting (nonhalting) state is exactly one half. At the level of probability amplitudes, quantum theory permits Zeno machines, but at the level of observable probabilities, this super-power is nullified, as the result of the computation appears to be random.







Classical mechanics postulates space and time continua as a foundational principle.
This can be readily achieved, since the program is presented to in some encoded form , i.e. as a string of symbols.
This can be realized by an infinite loop.
Diagonalization operator.