Re:Alan Turing thought of it first... (Score 1)

Actually our computers are a little better than finite state machines - finite state machines have no memory only a state if its a Deterministic FSM or n states if its a Nondeterministic FSM. It might interest you to know that a FSM is equivalent to a regular expression. IMHO our computers are more like turning machines with a finite tape. I've always thought of the microprocessor as a Universal Turing Machine it accepts instructions(equivalent to another Turing machine) and data(equivalent to the tape covered in symbols) and then acts like its that other Turing machine operating on that tape covered in symbols.