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"I asked them if they did it for the money (which I doubted). No, but the money made them more aware of the problem." "The only grid that we do not know if it

"I asked them if they did it for the money (which I doubted). No, but the money made them more aware of the problem." "The only grid that we do not know if it is 4-colorable is 12x21. This is still open and you are URGED to work on it. Sorry, no cash on this one. Do it for the glory!" This strikes me as an excellent opportunity to use KickStarter to amplify interest. If the people interested in 12x21 kicked in even $10 each, you could have a noticeable prize. Perhaps this would be a good way to focus attention on certain problems?

cgag 15y ago
I was thinking the same thing. I love the idea of using something like kick starter to publicly fund prizes for math / science, not necessarily related to 4-color rectangles.
- ColinDabritz 15y ago
  You'd have to be careful about it, and have clear rules about who holds it and when the reward is given out. You could conceivably fund research that way as well, such as things that big business or the government shy away from, but has popular demand or value. It sounds approachable.
eridius 15y ago
If the problem is not solvable, then nobody can claim the prize. I'm not really familiar with Kickstarter's rules, but I'd imagine they might take issue with a Kickstarter project where it's possible that the money can't actually be used for anything.
- ColinDabritz 15y ago
  An excellent point, along with 'who holds the money?' and 'is the money invested in the mean time?' I think it could be addressed with a reasonable fallback, such as a math related charity after 20 years or some such. Or if you could make it possible to start awarding 'best tempt' partial payouts. There are certainly some complications involved, but it still seems workable to me overall. Perhaps partner with a well-known prize-giving organization.
  - m_eiman 15y ago
    The prize should be awarded for either finding a solution, or proving that no solution exists.
    - JonnieCache 15y ago
      Yes. The two eventualities are equivalent for this purpose. Obviously the non-existence of a solution might itself be unprovable, so you'd still have to set some time limit. Oh Gödel, always there to ruin our plans.
      - jules 15y ago
        Obviously if no solution exists then that fact is also provable, since this is a finite problem. The problem is not that it might not be provable. The problem is that verifying a non-existence proof could be hard, because such a proof would probably be something like "I ran my solver for three weeks and it said that there are no solutions".

cgag 15y ago

I was thinking the same thing. I love the idea of using something like kick starter to publicly fund prizes for math / science, not necessarily related to 4-color rectangles.

ColinDabritz 15y ago
You'd have to be careful about it, and have clear rules about who holds it and when the reward is given out. You could conceivably fund research that way as well, such as things that big business or the government shy away from, but has popular demand or value. It sounds approachable.

eridius 15y ago

If the problem is not solvable, then nobody can claim the prize. I'm not really familiar with Kickstarter's rules, but I'd imagine they might take issue with a Kickstarter project where it's possible that the money can't actually be used for anything.

ColinDabritz 15y ago
An excellent point, along with 'who holds the money?' and 'is the money invested in the mean time?' I think it could be addressed with a reasonable fallback, such as a math related charity after 20 years or some such. Or if you could make it possible to start awarding 'best tempt' partial payouts. There are certainly some complications involved, but it still seems workable to me overall. Perhaps partner with a well-known prize-giving organization.
- m_eiman 15y ago
  The prize should be awarded for either finding a solution, or proving that no solution exists.
  - JonnieCache 15y ago
    Yes. The two eventualities are equivalent for this purpose. Obviously the non-existence of a solution might itself be unprovable, so you'd still have to set some time limit. Oh Gödel, always there to ruin our plans.
    - jules 15y ago
      Obviously if no solution exists then that fact is also provable, since this is a finite problem. The problem is not that it might not be provable. The problem is that verifying a non-existence proof could be hard, because such a proof would probably be something like "I ran my solver for three weeks and it said that there are no solutions".