Feb 10, 2017
Hopf fibration of Planet Earth by Dror Bar-Natan
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Hopf fibration of Planet Earth by Dror Bar-Natan
The value of things is inversely correlated with their computational complexity. "Real time" machines, such as our brains, only run linear time algorithms, and there's still a lot we don't know. Anything we learn about things doable in linear time is truly valuable. Polynomial time we can in-practice run, even if we have to wait; these things are still valuable. Exponential time we can play with, but just a little, and exponential things must be beautiful or philosophically compelling to deserve attention. Values further diminish and the aesthetic-or-philosophical bar further rises as we go further slower, or un-computable, or ZFC-style intrinsically infinite, or large-cardinalish, or beyond.
Dror Bar-Natan: Talks: Polynomial Time Knot Polynomials // New developments in TQFT, Aarhus, July 27-31, 2015