Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 70 posts

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#41

Post by joshu »

carterschonwald wrote: post #36
philwelch wrote: post #32

I've always thought that this would make a great plot for a science fiction novel. A computer science fiction novel. There would be lots of intrigue, as the guy was tracked down by the NSA and covertly outwitted his opponents using his proof, until a final showdown where he discovers the horrifying truth about who else knows that P=NP, and what happens to everyone else who's ever proven it. So...should I look for a l…

Someone already did this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atrocity_Archives basically, all the really clever computer science such as NP=P turns out to involve summoning demons etc in the book. If you want to read a ridiculous spin on computer science + fantasy, fun read.

I quite enjoyed this book, actually.

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#42

Post by whatusername »

jerf wrote: post #37
whatusername wrote: post #24

I wondered along these lines recently. A relative is getting caught up in the "water-car", "Brown's Gas", Hydrogen internet scam.. Where you convert water to 2H2 + O2 and burn that to power the car, house, etc for "free". What would you do if it actually worked? How would you convince people? Where would you share it?

Convincing people is easy. Build a closed system, grab an inverter, sell power back to the power company, which in many places they are required by law to pay you for. Sell enough power back, you'll get attention. The idea that demonstrating a net-positive process is hard is merely smokescreen tossed up by the perpetual motion scamsters. It's not. It's easy. It's as easy as it is to demonstrate that a gas generator p…

Oh I agree.

And the existence of China (very large state with low regard for IP law and very significant energy requirements) is proof enough that the "energy companies are suppressing this" myth is a farce.

But even if I had that kind of proof - I would suggest you'd still think I was a crack-pot. It would be a very very significant uphill battle to gain acceptance in the science community. (obviously - as I would have experimental proof that a whole bunch of science theory is wrong)

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#43

Post by mariorz »

embeddedradical wrote: post #3

let people make a shopping list, then give them the best deal there is on all the things combined, with as few shipments and registrations as possible, maybe let them pick how many max new stores, and let them keep a list of stores they like -- and once you've made a bunch off that, announce how you did it, claim the million dollar prize and tada - the first mathematician i'm aware of who didn't care about the world'…

The problem with this is it's somewhat public. Assuming your system was outstandingly good, could it not raise dangerous suspicions?

I like your plan for dealing with academia.

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#46

Post by sown »

dave_au wrote: post #31
sown wrote: post #29

Two monitors at the same time, friend. In seriousness, I'd be careful because as others have pointed out, some crypto systems would be vulnerable.

More than some, I think. Most strong crypto short of one-time pads makes use of NP (or at least problems solvable by NP problems, factoring is probably a little easier than NP). NP is nice for crypto since it has P time checkable solutions - so just make the "password" an encoding of the solution and you're golden. It's easy to check that a password is correct, and it takes EXP time to brute force. Hopefully the cryp…

I'm reminded from the seminal hacker movie: "There's not a government on this earth that wouldn't kill us all for that thing."

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#47

Post by HouseTrip »

If you've got a good solution, there are plenty of systems you can make more efficient (not only salesmen and UPS :-) I would make a list, create a consultancy and propose my services to the industries with the highest remunerative potential :-)

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#49

Post by andreyf »

sown wrote: post #46
dave_au wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than some, I think. Most strong crypto short of one-time pads makes use of NP (or at least problems solvable by NP problems, factoring is probably a little easier than NP). NP is nice for crypto since it has P time checkable solutions - so just make the "password" an encoding of the solution and you're golden. It's easy to check that a password is correct, and it takes EXP time to brute force. Hopefully the cryp…

I'm reminded from the seminal hacker movie: "There's not a government on this earth that wouldn't kill us all for that thing."

Which movie would that be?

Re: Ask HN: P=NP, what do you do?

#50

Post by sown »

andreyf wrote: post #49
sown wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded from the seminal hacker movie: "There's not a government on this earth that wouldn't kill us all for that thing."

Which movie would that be?

Sneakers. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakers_(film) Decent flick.
Post reply on HN