Avi Wigderson (IAS) Thur March 9th 4:30 @ PNI A32

[Leenoy Meshulam]

Hi,

On Thursday March 9th , Bill Bialek and Ahmed El-Hady are hosting Avi Wigderson from the IAS. Wigderson will give a talk about the "P vs. NP" problem and its implications. The seminar will  take place in room A32 of the neuroscience building, 4:30-6:00 PM. Ahmed says that "The talk will be fun and does not require prior knowledge of computational complexity", so we thought this can be of interest to many of you.

Title and abstract attached below.

Leenoy

Title:   The "P vs. NP" problem: efficient computation, Internet security, and the limits to human knowledge

Abstract: The "P vs. NP" problem, formulated by computer theorists in the 1970s, quickly became a central outstanding problem of science and mathematics. In this talk I will attempt to describe its mathematical, scientific and philosophical content. I will discuss its status, and the implications of its resolution on science and technology (making clear that the $1M prize on solving it pales in comparison with these implications) .