tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post5179526799373177912..comments2024-03-27T19:58:17.387-05:00Comments on Computational Complexity: Game Theory, Terrorism, Hardness and SAT SolvingLance Fortnowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06752030912874378610noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-3083948634354220862010-12-06T16:37:42.354-06:002010-12-06T16:37:42.354-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.David Pennockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06369172924419106987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-65301237955712103082010-11-29T17:27:35.730-06:002010-11-29T17:27:35.730-06:00In post #10, Anonymous presents an utopian vision:...In post #10, Anonymous presents an utopian vision:<br /><br />-------------------------------<br /><i>"Governments ... are going to be forced [by transparency] to do less evil and kill less people, topple less democratically elected governments, support less brutal authoritarian dictatorships."</i><br />-------------------------------<br /><br />In post #8, Tinkerpop presents a similar utopian vision (from arXiv:0904.0027):<br /><br />-------------------------------<br /><i>"The goal of a eudaemonic system is ... a life that is devoid of pretense, doubt, and ultimately, fear. ... The individual would take on faith that the eudaemonic algorithm knows what is best for them in a resource complex world. Thus, the perfect life is not an aspiration, but a well-computed path."</i><br />-------------------------------<br /><br />I have to say, that IMHO both of these utopian visions might have been issued as press releases straight from the desk of Harry Potter's second-most-evil villain, Dolores Umbridge, in her capacity as an agent of a Voldemort-dominated Ministry of Magic.<br /><br />At our son's <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3722233&postID=5179526799373177912#c5865297599650761428" rel="nofollow">suggestion</a>, I have reviewed a pretty fair selection of the Wikipedia war logs from Iraq and Afghanistan. The non-utopian world they depict—it seems to me—is better described by Hippocrates' aphorism:<br /><br />-------------------------------<br /><i>"Life is short, [the] art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgment difficult."</i><br />-------------------------------<br /><br />It is clear, too, that although Google's motto is "Don't be evil", if it ever should happen that Google *did* become evil, their informatic resources would enable them to be mighty effective at it. And it is far from clear that larger databases, cleverer algorithms, and deeper theorems can provide much protection against this.John Sidleshttp://www.mrfm.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-74658231662519548932010-11-25T10:32:00.233-06:002010-11-25T10:32:00.233-06:00seems like lance it advertising for the black shee...seems like lance it advertising for the black sheep company. Come on, Lance, if you go like this than Maple should be the one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-1768536751115202972010-11-25T09:05:00.334-06:002010-11-25T09:05:00.334-06:00Dear Prof. Lance,
Should a "but" or an...Dear Prof. Lance, <br /><br />Should a "but" or an "and" be inserted between (1) The PCP theorem says it is as hard to approximate max-SAT as it is to solve it exactly. (2) In practice, according to Bart, this separation makes SAT easier to solve heuristically.<br /><br />In particular, what separation is "this" separation? Just want to capture your exact idea here, thanks!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-69050016736426035852010-11-25T07:42:22.540-06:002010-11-25T07:42:22.540-06:00lance, why twitter about wolfram alpha so much ......lance, why twitter about wolfram alpha so much ... what is ur obsession with it ?Daniel van Praagnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-35598404530505856002010-11-24T11:46:16.734-06:002010-11-24T11:46:16.734-06:00Anon: http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/rss....Anon: <a href="http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/rss.xml" rel="nofollow">http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/rss.xml</a>Lance Fortnowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06752030912874378610noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-74193281520368764752010-11-24T10:29:05.509-06:002010-11-24T10:29:05.509-06:00Out of subject: I find your blog very interesting ...Out of subject: I find your blog very interesting and wished you have RSS, for that I could subscribe :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3722233.post-58652975996507614282010-11-24T08:21:38.805-06:002010-11-24T08:21:38.805-06:00Our son has served five combat tours in Iraq and A...Our son has served five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as a US Marine.<br /><br />A notably large proportion of his in-theater activities have resembled an unending sequence of school board and/or a faculty steering committee meetings ... <br /><br />... interminable, turbulent meetings at which faculty, students, and the local citizenry alike are highly intelligent, heavily armed, justifiably mistrustful, in some cases homicidally angry, and motivated by an ever-evolving admixture of economic desperation, uncompromising religious and political ideologies, and millennia-old ethnic loyalties.<br /><br />Game theory—aka "common sense"—is of course very useful in these complex, difficult, ever-evolving circumstances. Here we are using von Neumann's pragmatic definition of game theory: "day-to-day—or perhaps year-to-year—opportunistic measures, a long sequence of small, correct decisions."<br /><br />The nearest thing to a "magic bullet" turns out to be, not the theorems of game theory, but the capability to reliably create dignified, secure, family-supporting jobs. And here the notion of "security" includes, most crucially, a functioning justice system. <br /><br />Upon this job-associated foundation, all other desired objectives are achievable. Conversely, without this foundation, no other meaningful objectives are feasible.<br /><br />The seminal document in this regard is <i>FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency</i>, which is available on-line. Our son's in-theater experiences are reasonably in accord with the principles set forth in this document. It is significant, for example, that in <i>FM 3-24</i> the word "justice" appears more often than the word "victory", and the word "narrative" more often than the word "strategy."<br /><br /><i>FM 3-24</i> is a document that well-repays close study. In particular, this morning I posted an essay this morning on Scott Aaronson's blog, upon the relative roles of <a href="http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=474#comment-55642" rel="nofollow">theorems, postulates, and enterprise in CT/QIT</a>. <br /><br />That essay claimed to draw upon lessons in <i>Huckleberry Finn</i> ... which is a true claim ... but it is also true that the main ideas of that essay largely originated in a systematic transposition of the key elements of <i>FM 3-24</i> doctrine to CT/QIT.<br /><br />The essay was written with a conscious long-term view toward helping this planet's coming generation of young people—young Marines in particular—to find the best possible uses for their youth, their creativity, and their heroism. <br /><br />And this objective I take to be central not only to complexity theory, but to the entire 21st century STEM enterprise.John Sidleshttp://www.mrfm.orgnoreply@blogger.com