> They're like sudoku or crossroads, interesting and somehow intellectually stimulating but they don't help shape/change/modify the world around us. I don't th

> They're like sudoku or crossroads, interesting and somehow intellectually stimulating but they don't help shape/change/modify the world around us. I don't think this is accurate: sudoku and crossroads have deterministic known solutions. Solving them is a mostly mechanical feat and indeed somewhat useless beyond the joy of solving. In contrast, the challenge of creating these sorts of programs is creative and open ended. It is very well possible that someone will come up with an even more efficient algorithm. Or a much simpler one. Or just a completely new strategy. As to the usefulness, these little toy programs are a constant source of inspiration for solving actual real world problems. A perfect example of this is Algorithm X. One of Knuth's toys that solves Sudoku puzzles. The same algorithm is easily adapted to solve scheduling problems and actually is a major innovation.