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Although the canonical text for constitutes only one among uncountably many orderings of f, there is an algorithm A. that progressively converts any incoming text G into a canonical text G' for the same function. Informally, A works on G by reading and storing the members of G until some pair of the form (0, x) appears. (If G is for some , then exactly one such pair must eventually occur.) A writes this pair as the first member of G'. Next, A searches its memory for some pair of the form (1, x); if no such pair is found in memory, A reads and stores more of G until such a pair is found. This pair is written onto G', and A then searches for a pair of the form (2, x) . . . . This process continues indefinitely. Although A may be required to store ever larger initial segments of G, its storage requirements are finite at any given time. It is clear that A gradually produces a canonical text for content(G). Formally, we let be defined as follows. |
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4.19 Definition For all , FA( s ) is the longest such that . |
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FA is computable, and applying it to ever longer initial segments of a text produces ever longer initial segments of the corresponding, canonical text. That is: |
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4.20 Lemma If G is an arbitrary text for , then is the canonical text for f. |
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The ability to algorithmically transform any text into canonical order simplifies the Ex paradigm. This is shown by the following proposition. |
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4.21 Proposition Let be given. if and only if there is a computable scientist that identifies the canonical text for any member of C. |
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Proof: The left-to-right direction is immediate. For the other direction, we use an internal simulation argument. Suppose that computable scientist F identifies the canonical text for any member of . Define scientist F* as follows. For all , F*( s ) = F(FA(s)). F* is computable because it is the composition of computable functions. Moreover, F* converges to on text G for if F converges to i on the corresponding canonical text. Since F identifies the latter, F* identifies the former and thus identifies C. |
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To prove claims of the form or we shall henceforth rely implicitly on Proposition 4.21, and consider only canonical texts. The following slight abuse of |
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