White whale refers to the small class of Turing machines up to 10 rules, i.e. machines with 3 states and 3 symbols, 5 states and 2 symbols or 2 states and 5 symbols.[1] The name was given by James Harland[2] as part of his Zany Zoo project.[3]
The most well known white whale (5 states, 2 symbols) has been confirmed to be 4098 in 2024.
Sources[]
- ↑ James Harland (2016) Busy beaver machines and the observant otter heuristic (or how to tame dreadful dragons) Theoretical Computer Science 646, 20: 61-85. (Preprint at arxiv)
- ↑ James Harland at RMIT University, Australia
- ↑ James Harland. The Busy Beaver, the Placid Platypus and other Crazy Creatures