Re:Mathematicians discover a perfect way to multiply (2019)
by hinkley on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @03:37PM
(#23920720)
Yeah but in the backstory they also mentioned that Kolmogorov conjectured that the optimal solution was O(n^2).
Conjectures aren't doing so hot in this area, it seems.
Re:Mathematicians discover a perfect way to multiply (2019)
by ChrisLomont on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @05:39PM
(#23921904)
>Conjectures aren't doing so hot in this area, it seems.
For that one counter-example how many conjectures turned out to be true?
Re:Mathematicians discover a perfect way to multiply (2019)
by timwaagh on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @06:30PM
(#23922298)
Ah but that's not what this game is about. It's about what you can prove. And conjectures are by definition things you can't prove yet. So the longer they stand and the more paths they block the more frustrating it gets.
Re:Mathematicians discover a perfect way to multiply (2019)
by mumbisChungo on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @03:28PM
(#23920646)
From the abstract:
>In this work, we prove that if a central conjecture in the area of network coding is true, then any constant degree boolean circuit for multiplication must have size Ω(nlgn), thus almost completely settling the complexity of multiplication circuits
So, given an unproven assumption and also given that we are constrained to doing multiplication on a boolean circuit, this may be "perfect" in a sense.
Seems like the title is mostly just clickbait.
[edit]
According to the abstract of the paper referred to in the article (https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10935) it rests on a "central conjecture in the area of network coding". Make of that what you will.