[PLUG-TALK] Could--Will

Jeme A Brelin jeme at brelin.net
Wed Mar 8 18:00:10 UTC 2006


On Wed, 8 Mar 2006, spike spooner wrote:
> (1) Andrew doesn't _know_ that factoring has any significant future 
> speed improvements.

Given sufficient time (and the considerable resources going toward these 
problems today), people are going to either build really freaking fast 
machines or develop new number theory to factor large numbers really 
freaking fast.

Those two things are definitely in the 95% confidence zone.

> Expressing an idea doesn't make it a possibility.

Expressing a possible idea does make it a possibility.

> (2) Knowing something could happen doesn't tell you that it will happen. 
> The next coin you flip could land heads. But will it?

We're not talking about the next flip, we're talking about some eventual 
flip.  And yeah, some eventual flip will surely be heads.  Is that 100%? 
No.  The improbable DOES happen and it could be that every flip from here 
on out is going to be tails, but I'm not going to stake my future on that 
outcome.

J.
-- 
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      Jeme A Brelin
     jeme at brelin.net
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