> I think that an overly literal and precise reading of his pithy phrase misses the point.
I suppose you're right. I get what you're saying, and based on that it seems what Dowek should have said was that "if we knew what computers would do, we would not use them".
For me that's a pretty crucial distinction though.
In any case, I agree that computation being deterministic yet indeterminable is indeed fairly surprising[1] and quite interesting, and indeed it is this potential for complexity that makes computers useful.
I suppose you're right. I get what you're saying, and based on that it seems what Dowek should have said was that "if we knew what computers would do, we would not use them".
For me that's a pretty crucial distinction though.
In any case, I agree that computation being deterministic yet indeterminable is indeed fairly surprising[1] and quite interesting, and indeed it is this potential for complexity that makes computers useful.
[1]: in the common sense of the word, if not both