Wow, this was the first time I had some understanding about what's going on, Prof. Lipton's UTC example is just so intuitive. I don't know if this is the common

Wow, this was the first time I had some understanding about what's going on, Prof. Lipton's UTC example is just so intuitive. I don't know if this is the common way they use to introduce NP-completeness in CS classes, but it's very easy to understand. And his comment that "If you can show that a new proof can solve weaker questions, even questions that are known, that can be very confidence building." is an excellent glimpse into a mathematicians way of thinking. This is exactly the reason, they are not too fond of brute force proofs (like the Rubik, God's number = 20 proof announced earlier this wee.): it doesn't teach any new mathematical tricks. However, what excites me even more than a possible proof to P!=NP is the new wiki and blog based open collaborative approach of researchers. Yes, we had instances of this before, but I think this is the first time such an approach is used to analyze a result of this magnitude, and in such short time. Compare and contrast with Wiles' and Perelman's proofs, where the discussions were all in some remote lecture halls and you just heard the final "yes" or "no" response to the proof.