Church Turing Thesis

1 min read Last updated Wed Jun 10 2026 04:52:55 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Any real-world computation can be translated into an equivalent Turing machine computation. A TM is a general model of computation.

Formerly known as Church’s thesis. First formulated by Alonzo Church. Treated as a conjecture.

Accepted because:

  • No counterexample proposed in 90+ years.
  • All other theoretical computation models proven equivalent to TMs.
  • Enhanced TMs provide no additional computing power.
  • TM operations capture all steps essential to human computation.
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