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Comment by _dain_

14 hours ago

Why do you "hope" P=NP? It would be a catastrophe

Either P=NP or not. Hoping one way or the other changes nothing. Nor does it change how efficient computing is, nor does it have any effect on cryptography. Discovering a vastly more efficient means of factoring primes--perhaps via quantum computing--would do that. But just learning that P=NP does nothing to further such a discovery. Almost certainly, if P=NP, the exponents and/or constants in a polynomial factoring algorithm would be galactic. (FWIW, Knuth believes that P=NP and that it has no practical consequences.)

Not really. P=NP but the degree of the polynomial is Grahams number doesn't let people into your bank account