Live data from Hacker News

A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

arxiv.org

251–260 of 303 posts

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#251

1. no google scholar account 2. three publications on the arxiv. I am willing to toss this out of hand...but look at yitang zhang or perelman. who knows? best of luck

although not prolific, the guy has published in top cs theory conferences and journals: http://dblp.uni-trier.de/pers/hd/b/Blum:Norbert

dblp is the proper place to check computer scientists' record, not arxiv/google scholar.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you feel strongly about something and write about it, you aren't virtue signalling, you're expressing your view. If you have any reason to take the rather uncharitable stance that his views on Trump are inauthentic, then post them, otherwise it's better just to assume that people who say things you disagree with actually think those things rather than are just saying them to look good. Accusing others of "virtue…

I'm curious what I said that sounded to you like "his stated views on Trump aren't authentic."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling

    Virtue signalling is the conspicuous expression of moral
    values done primarily with the intent of enhancing
    standing within a social group.
I don't think Aaronson states his views on Trump with the hopes of increasing his social status. He does it because it's just what he feels and wants to express himself.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#253
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty far out of my area of expertise, so I'll take your word for it. Could an an algorithm be correct, but not proven correct, or is it defined as a heuristic at that point?

Godel's incompleteness theorem would seem to imply that is possible unless I'm misinterpreting it. I have a rather elementary understanding.

The Collatz conjecture ( https://xkcd.com/710/ ) may well be an example here.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#254
post #2

I would normally sigh and move on seeing such a claim, but this guy is an established senior researcher at the University of Bonn. A career-ending disaster or instant and eternal fame, that's some serious cahunas.

If you think this is career ending you probably have no idea on how hiring and promoting decisions are made in German universities.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#255
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This interpretation is wrong. The class P contains for example O(N^(10^100000!)), that are not "solvable" by any remotely reasonable meaning of the word.

This is true, but it's difficult to imagine what such a problem could look like. In reality, algorithms tend to come in discrete complexity "units" with very small terms. A linear algorithm isn't just fast -- it tells you something about how such an algorithm works and thus something important about the problem it solves. A quadratic algorithm can be interpreted as a "considers all pairs from the inputs" algorithm. A…

Your observation about correspondence between algorithmic complexity and its structure seems very interesting to me, thanks for sharing.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#256
post #174

If p != np, then comp sci will lose much of its appeal. There is an underlying hope behind the field that p = np, otherwise most problems of interest are intractable, and programmers are no longer masters of the universe. This is probably why there is not a proof yet, since the truth is undesirable.

That's like saying Math will lose its appeal because there is no algorithm to find prime numbers. P != NP is natural, you just gotta roll with it.

There is an algorithm to find prime numbers. It might not be efficient but it exists.

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#257

Can someone ELI5 what this problem is, how likely the proof is to hold up to scrutiny, and whether P != NP follows?

Here is a largely correct ELI5: P != NP asks the question "Are problems that are easy to verify (NP) also Easy to solve ? (P)". Note that the reverse is obviously true : problems that are easy to solve are also easy to verify . Here is an example: Take the problem "Find minimum of 5,6,7,8". You solve the problem and tell me that the answer is 5. I can verify your answer by solving the problem myself, getting the the…

This is a bit of a mischaracterization of secure hashing.

You can not uniquely reconstruct a document from a hash value. Indeed, for a typical secure hash function, a given hash value maps to an infinite set of inputs. But because secure hashes are one-way functions, finding any of those inputs for a given output requires brute force. This is why the bidding example works - it's so hard to find any input that hashes to a value that even having one of them is reasonable proof that it was the source document.

*Consider a secure 1024-bit hash function. How many 1025-bit inputs map, on average, to each hash value?

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#258
As someone with an undergrad level knowledge of the problem can someone please outline the importance of this research. Is this research done in some bounded domain. From what I have read in the comments, there seems to be other papers which have also proved P!=NP. So what does this research add...Just curious, feel free to ignore this...

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#259
post #258

As someone with an undergrad level knowledge of the problem can someone please outline the importance of this research. Is this research done in some bounded domain. From what I have read in the comments, there seems to be other papers which have also proved P!=NP. So what does this research add...Just curious, feel free to ignore this...

> From what I have read in the comments, there seems to be other papers which have also proved P!=NP.

None of those papers have been accepted as correct, the problem remains open.

There's a gazillion articles describing the context and importance, and I suggest you do a web search for something like "P vs NP and why it's important".

Here's one: http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=459

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1605415

Re: A Solution of the P versus NP Problem?

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you one of those people who equates any mention whatsoever of Trump as "being needlessly political"?

No, but this one was.

Could you clarify what was needlessly political? I can't seem to find anything political there at all.
Post reply on HN