We want to prove:
There is no algorithm for SAT in P
This seems hard. So lets scale down our goals to:
Lance cannot find an algorithm for SAT in P
You can replace Lance with someone else, but Lance has volunteered to have brain scans done. The idea is to scan the P vs NP part of his brain and see what we can discern.
I know what you are thinking. Lance truly believes that SAT is NOT in P so perhaps even if SAT is in P, he would have a mental block. Hence I am hoping to also get some serious theorists that think SAT is in P to participate. This might also shed light on the following conjecture: is it easier to prove a theorem if you believe it is true.
Lance has proposed another line of research. Barriers. Try to establish
Lance cannot prove that SAT is NOT in P
using brain scans and he volunteered.
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| Brain Scan of Lance's Proving Ability |
For this one the mental block problem is gone; however, as you can clearly see from his brain scan, Lance will never prove that SAT is not in P. Seven years as department chair has caused irreversible damage to his ability to reason logically.
We hope to recruit other theorists to the project. The sticking point might be privacy: if we prove that professor X cannot solve P vs NP will the affect their being hired? For this reason we will restrict the study to professors with Tenure. But this is a weakness of the study since we had wanted to study if younger people have a better chance to resolve P vs NP. So we need to find very young tenured professors.
After we get the technology working on Theorists and P vs NP we will try to expand it for home use. For example, if a spouse claims I could never learn to cook or I could never learn to drive (that's me) their partner will be able to verify the statement. It is not clear if this will make the divorce rate go up or down. Or if a child says I just can't do algebra the parents can test the child and say Oh yes you can!
Computational Complexity published first on Computational Complexity
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