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Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

travellingsalesmanmovie.com

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Re: Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

#31

Post by jere »

Interesting concept. Probably worthwhile as a teaching tool, but don't get your hopes up about it being good. The trailer doesn't impress, the 4.8 rating on IMDB is nothing to ignore, and I think wikipedia is being dishonest when it says "early reviews have been favorable" when in fact the two supporting citations both link to the same article that actually says this:

>Unfortunately, this means that the majority of the film consists of five men having a heated discussion in a stark, washed-out blue room in some anonymous government building. Other than Horton, we never even learn the characters’ names. The low-budget aesthetic and grounding in hard science is reminiscent of the excellent time-travel film Primer, but Travelling Salesman is far less ambitious. A few flashbacks help break up the film, but you can’t help think this particular story would be better served as an hour-long play.

And yea, it's clear that the film is at least partially inspired by Primer. I'm not sure if this really bothers me, though I once made a short film vaguely inspired by Primer and was harshly called out for it. Compare the trailers:

http://youtu.be/4CC60HJvZRE

http://youtu.be/6ybd5rbQ5rU

Re: Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

#34

Post by pfarrell »

rebhan wrote: post #16

The problem is practically solved, use Genetic Algorithms and you's find a solution which is sufficient for any practical uses.

Sufficient for any practical use is not "solved" in the mathematical sense.

Also, AFAIK, a general solution to P=NP could still be very time consuming to calculate (even if you prove polynomial time solutions, that could still be a very high order polynomial). That is, your general solution to the problem could be only slightly better than O(n!) and satisfy.

Re: Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

#36

Post by ctdonath »

Could be fun if "what if..?" movies like this were made with an accompanying short (same actors, set, etc) following the alternate answer to the key question. In this case, the dramatic gathering of the 4 smartest men by the government to answer "P = NP?", and they proceed to answer the question: "General, we have proof of the answer. P != NP. Some things really are really hard. Good day."

Re: Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

#37

Post by ctdonath »

aet wrote: post #33

Melting point of sand (silicon dioxide, or Quartz): 1723 C. So what material is the coin in the example?

I'd wondered that too. Also wondered how transparent the glass would be: assuming the point would be rapid mass heating of the desert/beach in question a la nuclear weapon, the lack of material purity and uncontrolled heating would result in pretty poor glass, likely opaque. Trinitite isn't clear.

Even if P=NP, some problems still take a whole lotta work to solve, and "shortcuts" aren't much faster.

Re: Travelling Salesman – Official Movie Site

#40

Post by ctdonath »

feniv wrote: post #11

I love hypothetical science fiction movies like this, but they so often get criticized for the improbability of their premise rather than admired for their vision.

Many do manage to express their vision well enough to rise above their improbability. Primer, Source Code, Cube, plenty of others are utterly implausible yet garnered praise.
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