| ▲ | hyperpape 2 hours ago | |
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076267. The busy beaver function is uncomputable. That is well understood. However, for any given n, there is a number BB(n). Since that number is an integer, it is computable, even though it is the value of an incomputable function applied to a particular n. In particular, for numbers > 5, we have no idea what that number is. But whatever number it is, that number is computable. Look at the post that I was responding to. It made the bad inference that because Graham's Number is computable, it ought to be smaller than BB(10). That confuses computability of a given number with computability of a function. | ||
| ▲ | bonzini an hour ago | parent [-] | |
Computable doesn't mean that you can write it down the number that is the value, given an oracle that tells you the value. It means that you know that it the number you are writing down is the right one, because you computed it. | ||