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International Symposium on Foundations of Information and Knowledge Systems

FoIKS 2000: Foundations of Information and Knowledge Systems pp 116–135Cite as

Persistent Turing Machines as a Model of Interactive Computation

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1762))

Abstract

Persistent Turing Machines (PTMs) are multitape machines with a persistent worktape preserved between interactions, whose inputs and outputs are dynamically generated streams of tokens (strings). They are a minimal extension of Turing Machines (TMs) that express interactive behavior. They provide a natural model for sequential interactive computation such as single-user databases and intelligent agents.

PTM behavior is characterized observationally, by input-output streams; the notions of equivalence and expressiveness for PTMs are defined relative to its behavior. Four different models of PTM behavior are examined: language-based, automaton-based, function-based, and environment-based. A number of special subclasses of PTMs are identified; several expressiveness results are obtained, both for the general class of all PTMs and for the special subclasses, proving the conjecture in [We2] that interactive computing devices are more expressive than TMs.

The methods and tools for formalizing PTM computation developed in this paper can serve as a basis for a more comprehensive theory of interactive computation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston

    Dina Q Goldin

Authors
  1. Dina Q Goldin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Informatik, Technische Universität Clausthal, Julius-Albert-Str. 4, 38678, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany

    Klaus-Dieter Schewe

  2. Institut für Informatik, Technische Universität Cottbus, Postfach 101344, 03013, Cottbus, Germany

    Bernhard Thalheim

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Goldin, D.Q. (2000). Persistent Turing Machines as a Model of Interactive Computation. In: Schewe, KD., Thalheim, B. (eds) Foundations of Information and Knowledge Systems. FoIKS 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1762. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46564-2_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46564-2_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67100-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46564-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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