The Traveling Salesman problem. The backpack problem. Public Key encryption. All examples of the NP-Complete family of algorithms - are they non-polynomial? Are they polynomial w/a really brilliant algorithm that we haven’t yet found? Nobody knows.

It turns out that humble Minesweeper is of the same family. The proof of this is absolutely brilliant.

Thus, every time you’ve solved a game of Minesweeper, you’ve solved an NP-Complete problem. Yay, wetware.

Having said this, since Quantum Computers can solve Public Key Encryption in Polynomial time, assume that they can solve Minesweeper in polynomial time too.

Next up: Sudoku is solved using the Riemann Hypothesis (heh)

Every once in a while, I run across commentary that seems to believe that man is a plague on the earth, and the earth and nature would be better off without us.

Recently, a friend of mine said that these statements were made by trolls and sock puppets.

But I don’t think this guy is a sock puppet, (Chris Thomas, not Robin Hanson) and I don’t particularly think he’s trolling.