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Sorry, a formula and an algorithm are not at all different. A mathematical formula is just a symbolic expression of an abstract concept, with the procedure (al

by janoc 8y ago

Sorry, a formula and an algorithm are not at all different. A mathematical formula is just a symbolic expression of an abstract concept, with the procedure (algorithm) how to use it being implicit (= obvious to the person skilled in the art). A computer algorithm can be trivially converted into purely mathematical/logic representation ("formulas" if you want), e.g. using things like lambda calculus. And vice-versa - an abstract mathematical problem formulation can be converted into an algorithm (assuming the solution is known). If you start patenting algorithms, you are patenting math.

1787 8y ago
It is true that an algorithm can be converted to a formula, and a formula to an algorithm, but it is unlikely a given useful algorithm could be generated mechanically from a (human-written, useful) formula. For example, you could write a formula to express the property of order in lists, and maybe with some mechanical procedure (falling under "obvious to the person skilled in the art") you could then generate an algorithm that sorted lists. However, what's the time/space complexity of that algorithm? What are the practical runtime characteristics? For industry applications the practical runtime characteristics matter as much as anything else. That you technically could compute something doesn't matter at all, if that computation might not finish until relevant celestial bodies have phase changes. I'm not saying Quicksort should be patentable, but I do think it's at least a step and a half removed from pure math.
kovek 8y ago
With an algorithm implementation, you require integration with a runtime, quick storage, data, a data format. You also maybe need some tests and an SLA. There must be other components I missed.
itronitron 8y ago
But you could also argue that algorithms can be expressed through Language by trivially converting them into a purely semantic/logic representation. Is then anything that can be expressed through Language not patentable because it is trivially reduced to words?

by janoc 8y ago

1787 8y ago

It is true that an algorithm can be converted to a formula, and a formula to an algorithm, but it is unlikely a given useful algorithm could be generated mechanically from a (human-written, useful) formula. For example, you could write a formula to express the property of order in lists, and maybe with some mechanical procedure (falling under "obvious to the person skilled in the art") you could then generate an algorithm that sorted lists. However, what's the time/space complexity of that algorithm? What are the practical runtime characteristics? For industry applications the practical runtime characteristics matter as much as anything else. That you technically could compute something doesn't matter at all, if that computation might not finish until relevant celestial bodies have phase changes. I'm not saying Quicksort should be patentable, but I do think it's at least a step and a half removed from pure math.

kovek 8y ago

With an algorithm implementation, you require integration with a runtime, quick storage, data, a data format. You also maybe need some tests and an SLA. There must be other components I missed.

itronitron 8y ago

But you could also argue that algorithms can be expressed through Language by trivially converting them into a purely semantic/logic representation. Is then anything that can be expressed through Language not patentable because it is trivially reduced to words?