Comment Re:Seems I'm always contrary. Well here goes again (Score 1) 212
The reason why I brought up Fermat's Theorem, is that very well argued explanations of what we can't figure-out or do, supplied by very highly credentialed persons, has not been a barrier to actually solving problems. Fermat's is an example of something, that was generally felt to be unsolvable, for centuries, but then was later solved in a way that you could almost call kinda simple.
Making 100s of important problems into what is kinda 1 problem, is the first step in solving 100s of problems all at once.
Considering your argument, if I could turn the 100s of NP-hard problems into something that could be explained to a computer as one problem. I could run an algorithm against it, and from time to time, get marginally better results. Until, I just didn't care about the results being better. Once that is achieved, for me, the problem is solved. Once, most people just don't care about the slightly better results, it has been generally solved.
can't be solved, phish posh.
still being contrary, I suppose.