Friday, April 27, 2012

Travelling Salesman - A Movie About P = NP

Honestly a movie is being about about the travelling salesman problem. The plot of the movie is based on what would happen if a computer scientist proved that NP = P. If this happened, all public key cryptography would be useless  as the NP problems they are based on could be converted into problems in P and solved in a "reasonable" time. The movie called Traveling Salesman premiers on June 16 and according to the makers "is an intellectual thriller about four of the world's smartest mathematicians hired by the U.S. government to solve the most elusive problem in computer science history -- P vs. NP. The four have jointly created a "system" which could be the next major advancement for humanity or the downfall of society. As the mathematicians are about to sign documents that will give the government sole and private ownership of their solution, they wrestle with the moral dilemma of how their landmark discovery will be used."
   You can find out more information on the movie's website, and you thought computer science was boring.

3 comments:

  1. I actually just interviewed the writer/Director of this film, Timothy Lanzone, over at the podcast Strongly Connected Components. You can check it out at http://bit.ly/KbOUyt

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    Replies
    1. Hi,
      That's a great interview - I'll make a post to ensure readers of my blog (and its derivative computer science blog) get to listen to it.

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