leimkuhl@uiucdcsp.UUCP (06/05/87)
P != NP does lead to some interesting thoughts. Problems of any size which actually take exponential time may NEVER be computationally viable. This places some sort of limit on the problem-solving abilities of FUTURE humans. Until now, we have tended to classify problems as "solvable" or "not yet solvable" and very rarely as "never solvable." I remember a quote from some science fiction novel from my teen years to the effect that maybe humans are not meant to reach the stars. -Ben Leimkuhler