> Point blank: quantum computers cannot solve NP-Hard problems. Period, > end of sentence. NP-Hard is where the ridiculously difficult problems > live.
For those who like pedantry: NP-Hard is the name given to any problem that is as hard, or harder, than any problem in NP. The Traveling Salesman Problem is NP, and is known to be as hard as any problem in NP, therefore it's NP-Hard. But it's also the *easiest* NP-Hard. Because remember, NP-Hard is anything as hard *or harder* than anything in NP. Playing a perfect game of Go isn't in NP, ergo playing a perfect game of Go is NP-Hard. NP-Hard is a collective term that covers a truly staggering amount of terrain, going from the "easy" problems like traveling salesman all the way up to the "are you kidding me?" like reversing entropy. Few computer scientists like talking about NP-Hard. It's simply too big of a space. And if anyone seriously talks about a general technique that works on NP-Hard problems, they get laughed at. Lots. Because there isn't one, and we've formally proven there isn't one. This was the proof that made Alan Turing famous. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
