Interactive computation: Difference between revisions

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In [[computationalcomputer science]], '''interactive computation''' is a [[mathematical model]] for [[computation]] that involves communication with the external world during the computation. This is in contrast to the traditional understanding of computation which assumes a simple interface between a computing agent and its environment, consisting in asking a question (input) and generating an answer (output).

The famous [[Church-Turing thesis]] attempts to define computation and computability in terms of [[Turing machines]]. However the Turing machine model only provides an answer to the question of what computability of ''functions'' means and, with interactive tasks not always being reducible to functions, it fails to capture our broader intuition of computation and computability. While this fact was admitted by [[Alan Turing]] himself, it was not until recently that the theoretical computer science community realized the necessity to define adequate mathematical models of interactive computation. Among the currently studied mathematical models of computation that attempt to capture interaction are [http://www.csc.villanova.edu/~japaridz/ Japaridze's] hard- and easy-play machines elaborated within the framework of [[computability logic]], [http://www.cse.uconn.edu/~dqg Goldin's] persistent Turing machines, and [http://research.microsoft.com/~gurevich Gurevich's] abstract state machines. [[Peter Wegner]] has additionally done a great deal of work on this area of computer science.

[[Category:Theory of computation]]

==See also==