Delete comment from: Computational Complexity
On a more humorous vein, our first "gut reaction to what happens if P=NP" obviously should be "There goes personal privacy!"
Because in a world where everyone is (in effect) a transcendentally intelligent Sherlock Holmes, the following discussion would be commonplace:
"Former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman is secretly gay? That's not news ... heck, my laptop deduced it years ago ... from his choice in ties."
We thus appreciate that in a world of P=NP (or any capability approaching it) human existence would be reduced to a ruthless battle for information-dominance, with privacy effectively nonexistent, and every citizen held thrall to what many folks nowadays praise, but (logically speaking) all should abhor: rational, efficient markets.
Which ... uhh ... maybe helps us appreciate why computer-assisted trading, in the nominal service of market efficiency, has so very often in recent decades proven to be a terribly bad idea? :)
Aug 26, 2010, 11:06:15 AM
Posted to Cryptography if P = NP