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Pick any of those. Given a problem, there is a minimal complexity to the programs that solve it. You can always raise the complexity, but not reduce it.
by pron 7y ago
Pick any of those. Given a problem, there is a minimal complexity to the programs that solve it. You can always raise the complexity, but not reduce it.
- renewiltord 7y agoI'm confused by your response to ninjapenguin[0]. Were you agreeing with him or disagreeing or something else? I interpreted your response to be disagreement. I feel that your original style of phrasing "If only x etc. etc." is not easy to understand. I'm having a hard time placing your subsequent comments in context of that original response. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23042891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23042891
- pron 7y agoI was disagreeing with the statement that "Comparing [complexity] to something as fundamental as energy is pure bollocks." There is, in fact, a discipline that studies complexity -- computer science, and, in particular the field of complexity theory. Complexity was, in fact, found to be fundamental and "irreducible". Two people, Hartmanis and Stearns, did, in fact, discover that through a comparison to physics [1] in 1965, and for that discovery -- that led to the creation of complexity theory -- they won the Turing Award in 1993. [1]: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1283920.1283949 https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1283920.1283949