On Wed, Sep 26, 2007 at 10:26:02AM -0600, Levi Pearson wrote:
> Paul Seamons <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:


> Computer scientists are actually pretty picky about the words they use
> to describe the difficulty of problems.  You will never find a non-CS
> person, or anyone else, solving an problem deemed impossible by CS
> theory, because such problems are not computable.  If it looks like
> they did, then they only thought they solved the problem.  They either
> solved something else, or the solutions are wrong.
> 
> Your argument seems to me equivalent to saying that lack of training
> in physics gives you a better shot at designing physically impossible
> devices.  Despite your words, no one is going to successfully build a
> perpetual motion machine, because such things are impossible.

Right. Now go find a short story by Issac Asimov titled "Not Final".

This reminds me of something Sir Arthur C. Clarke observed: that when
a distingushed scientist telly you something is possible he is almost
certainly correct. But when he tells you something is impossible, he
is almost certainly wrong.

-- 

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