gwern comments on [Link] A superintelligent solution to the Fermi paradox - Less Wrong

-1 Post author: Will_Newsome 30 May 2012 08:08PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 31 May 2012 03:24:49AM 1 point [-]

Compare it to quantum computation, where people were avidly researching it and coming up with algorithms decades before even toy quantum computers showed up in cutting-edge labs.

My understanding of the history is that everyone believed the extended Church-Turing thesis until someone noticed that the (already established) theory of quantum mechanics contradicted it.

Comment author: gwern 31 May 2012 03:33:07AM 0 points [-]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone invoke the extended Church-Turing thesis by either name or substance before quantum computing came around.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 31 May 2012 03:55:28AM 1 point [-]

People were talking about P-time before quantum computing and implicitly assuming that it applied to any computer they could build.

Comment author: gwern 31 May 2012 04:00:52AM 0 points [-]

I don't see how one would apply "P-time" to "any computer they could build".

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 31 May 2012 04:46:24AM 1 point [-]

I meant "apply" in the sense that one applies a mathematical model to a phenomenon. Specifically, it was implicitly assumed the the notion of polynomial time captured what was actually possible to compute in polynomial time.