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It is easy to verify that the collection of all finite languages can be identified by a consistent scientist. Consistency appears to be a rational strategy. However, the following proposition demonstrates that consistency restricts TxtEx.
5.6 Proposition Suppose 0094-001.gif is consistently identifiable. Then Image-1021.gif is a collection of recursive languages.
Proof: Suppose 0094-002.gif. By the locking sequence lemma (Theorem 3.22), there is a sequence  s  such that 0094-003.gif, WM( s ) = L, and for each 0094-004.gif with 0094-005.gif, we have that 0094-006.gif.
Suppose 0094-007.gif. Then 0094-008.gif, since  s  is a locking sequence for L. Now suppose 0094-009.gif. Then, since M is consistent, 0094-010.gif is not an index for L, and hence 0094-011.gif. Thus 0094-012.gif if and only if 0094-013.gif. Since M is total, this constitutes an effective test for membership in L.
There are certainly 0094-014.gif that include nonrecursive languages. One such collection is { K }! Hence Proposition 5.6 yields the following corollary.
5.7 Corollary 0094-015.gif.
Proposition 5.6 suggests the following question: If attention is limited to the recursive languages, does consistency still restrict TxtEx? The next proposition provides an affirmative answer.
5.8 Proposition There is an 0094-016.gif such that 0094-017.gif.
Our proof of the proposition uses the following lemma and definition. The lemma is a standard exercise.
5.9 Lemma For each 0-1 valued recursive function h(·, ·), there is a recursive set S which differs from each of the recursive sets 0094-018.gif where i = 0, 1, · · ·.
5.10 Definition 0094-019.gif is said to be r.e. indexable just in case there is 0094-020.gif such that 0094-021.gif; in this case S is said to be an r.e. index set for Image-1022.gif. Similarly, 0094-022.gif is said to be r.e. indexable just in case there is 0094-023.gif such that 0094-024.gif and S is said to be an r.e. index set for C.
Although the recursive sets are r.e. indexable (see Rogers [158, Page 73]), Lemma 5.9 says that the collection of characteristic functions of recursive sets is not r.e. indexable.

 
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