Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!turpin From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) Newsgroups: comp.theory Subject: Re: dreams... Summary: Why we should all hope P=NP. Message-ID: <18023@cs.utexas.edu> Date: 21 Feb 91 00:58:53 GMT References: <9102191402.AA08433@hadar.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il> Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 40 ----- In describing a dream, Mr Harel said something that struck me as expressing an attitude fundamentally against progress. In article <9102191402.AA08433@hadar.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il> David Harel writes: > ... No, there was no screaming or cold sweat or anything like > that, but I sure hope P is not equal to NP. It would be much better if P=NP. Any proof of this would undoubtedly reveal new ways to better solve important problems that are currently intractable except on relatively small sets. > The other frustration, involved trying to convince all kinds > of strange people who kept showing up in my office at all hours, > demanding that I explain what more is there to complexity theory, > and what will all the great talents in this area do, now that > not only has their main open problem been resolved, but it has > been resolved in such a way as to render equivalent so many > interestingly different-looking complexity classes. ... These are smart people. They would quickly find other important problems on which to focus. Indeed, this would be an important benefit of proving P=NP: it would free up all these bright people to work on problems that remain unsolved. All practical research is inherently the kind of work that when it succeeds well, it destroys the very field in which the work was done. There are many fewer people now working on cures or preventions for smallpox than there were fifty years ago. The workers fifty years ago succeeded well, and put themselves out of work. (Or at least, they put themselves out of *that* work. I have no doubt that most went on to other useful work in medicine.) A simple cure for AIDS would eliminate many current research jobs. Should we for that reason hope this disease has no simple cure? Everyone doing practical research should keep in mind that it is their goal to make sure that their current job is one for which there is no need in ten years. Russell