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From: leimkuhl@uiucdcsp.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: What philosophical problems does co
Message-ID: <97600003@uiucdcsp>
Date: Fri, 5-Jun-87 12:40:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsp.97600003
Posted: Fri Jun  5 12:40:00 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 7-Jun-87 10:09:08 EDT
References: <789@klipper.cs.vu.nl>
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Nf-From: uiucdcsp.cs.uiuc.edu!leimkuhl    Jun  5 11:40:00 1987




P != NP does lead to some interesting thoughts.  Problems of any
size which actually take exponential time may NEVER be computationally
viable.  This places some sort of limit on the problem-solving
abilities of FUTURE humans.  Until now, we have tended to classify
problems as "solvable" or "not yet solvable" and very rarely as
"never solvable."

I remember a quote from some science fiction novel from my teen years
to the effect that maybe humans are not meant to reach the stars.

-Ben Leimkuhler