Slashdot Mirror
Claimed Proof That P != NP
morsch writes "Researcher Vinay Deolalikar from HP Labs claims proof that P != NP. The 100-page paper has apparently not been peer-reviewed yet, so feel free to dig in and find some flaws. However, the attempt seems to be quite genuine, and Deolalikar has published papers in the same field in the past. So this may be the real thing. Given that $1M from the Millennium Prize is involved, it will certainly get enough scrutiny. Greg Baker broke the story on his blog, including the email Deolalikar sent around."
I mean, NP has an N in front of the P. That's obviously not the same as P. Also, P != HP.
I was a afraid he might have left out an important step.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
The C&D letter is in the mail, buster. -Kool-Aid Man
If this has appeared somewhere in the other comments, sorry for missing it, but http://xkcd.com/664/ seems oh so appropriate here. (especially the alt text)
At a 100 pages its going to be a while before I can say I have RTFA, but I'll get back with any relevance in a few days after I have digested it. I suggest any post claiming other wise are a bit hasty.
Aren't the best theories supposed to be elegantly simple? This looks a mess.
Wait.. that's just how my head feels after reading the abstract.
Yeah baby, we can now create an efficient way to break AES256 and decrypt the Wikileaks "insurance" file!
At the time of writing, there are two comments on Greg Baker's blog, congratulating Vinay on making it onto Slashdot. Jeez...he's potentially solved one of (if not) the most important open problem in computing, which could land him a million dollars in prize money...but yeah...well done on making it into that most esteemed of online publications, Slashdot.
You forgot 'and I'm lazy'. Because NP is just hard, not impossible.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
It's funny how we don't hear anything from HP for ages, then as soon as there's a sex scandal involving the disgraced CEO, out come all sorts of distractions.
I smell a rat. Okay, I smell 2 rats - Mark Hurd (ex-CEO) and HPs' spin department.
But the margin is too narrow to contain it.
If you can read this, it means that I bothered to log in.
Now that, my friend, is +5, Funny. Nothing here has been fixed in years.
That's one hell of a spin department.
Some university really should hire them, because if they can prove P!=NP just to cover up a sex scandal, imagine what they could do if they didn't waste time writing press releases.
Net result: post is +5 funny but you take major karma hits.
"We used to rate people -1 Overrated. Now we just rate them +1 Funny. It's more effective that way."
(Apologies to KMFDM...)
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
If this proof holds up, then RSA and ECC become provably secure in a way they weren't before.
Note to self: Buy a 5$ wrench.
I don't mind dating a girl that has been with everybody, as long as she had a good shower afterwards.
World Health Organization?
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
We'll know that P != NP if it takes us less time to verify the proof as it took him to generate it.
Well, if the guy is right, shouldn't there be an easy way to check?
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Yes, simply use this formula to verify;
P != NP
I dunno about you, but I've received mathematical proofs "published" by mass-emailing. Thousands of proofs that that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle was untenable, about seven or eight years ago.
That's one hell of a spin department.
Some university really should hire them, because if they can prove P!=NP just to cover up a sex scandal, imagine what they could do if they didn't waste time writing press releases.
Oh man, if you think the politics and backbiting are bad in typical academia, wait until you see an entire computer science department arguing over who gets to have illicit sex in order to set off the proof-generating team.
"This algorithm runs in constant time. Come on, 2,147,483,648 is a constant..."
Well ok, but doesn't this depend on whether you consider a theory Not Particularly Complete without a proof?
Bazinga.
Keep dreaming.
Even at "Harbor Freight" (read: cheap-ass tools), a $5 wrench won't do much more than let you take the wheels off a model train and pick your nose.
Go for the $10 wrench. ;)
...because if they can prove P!=NP just to cover up a sex scandal, imagine what they could do if they didn't waste time writing press releases.
Hold the best orgy ever?
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
That fishy smell, it's from the sex scandal.