English

What is an Algorithm?: a Modern View

Logic in Computer Science 2021-08-25 v1

Abstract

Although algorithm is one of the central subjects, there have been little common understandings of what an algorithm is. For example, Gurevich view algorithms as abstract state machines, while others view algorithms as recursors. We promote a third view: it is a combination to these two disparate views. This approach -- based on computability logic -- describes an algorithm as A(I,O)A(I,O) where II is a set of input services and OO an output service. It leads to the following modern definition: {\it An algorithm AA is a (tree of) sequence of legal moves for providing OO using II. } In the above, AA is written in an imperative language/abstract state machine and I,OI,O are written in recursors/logical specifications.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.10728,
  title  = {What is an Algorithm?: a Modern View},
  author = {Keehang Kwon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.10728},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

6 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T05:22:48.708Z