Once again my apologies for lowering the tone, and many thanks for some
sensible and thought-provoking responses!
> Following conservative estimates of cpu power and number of participants
> doubling every two years, I'd guess that we will have a our first billion
> digit prime in 2021, when we have 40 million participants and Pentium XV
> 1000GHz processors.
10^12Hz... wow! Can you imagine the technical innovation needed to get a
machine where light only travels 0.3mm in a clock cycle? That's some densely
packed, erm, stuff... probably not silicon, the sort of thing we probably
can't conceive right now (electron obedience school?), but there's a good 22
years to go yet. Back in 1977, I seem to remember "VLSI" meant a digital
watch was $100, now they're free with Happy Meals. As for 40 million
participants, maybe they'll be giving away LL engines or Dubner crunchers
with Happy Meals by then, maybe every electronic device in my house will be
squaring and subtracting 2 in its idle time.
> > I'm not counting on seeing either in my lifetime.
> Well, I still plan on seeing it in my lifetime. ;-)
I'm with Spike on this one. If E.T. does make the call, there are going to
be a lot of people dropping EVERYTHING. And even if we don't have "Microsoft
SpaceBender V1.1a SR3" (courtesy of Bob Burrowes, thanks Bob) to make
interstellar communication a possibility, there'll be a lot of people
running for the cryogenic suspension chambers...
Meanwhile, the potential M38 gets ever nearer... not long to wait now I
shouldn't think. I hope Ernst or whoever is verifying will at least give us
a yes or no answer, even if the EFF rules mean that the exponent won't be
released to the world until it is in print...
Chris Nash
Lexington KY
UNITED STATES
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Co-discoverer of probably the 8th and 11th largest known primes.
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