Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 11:47:21 09/30/01
Go up one level in this thread
On September 29, 2001 at 14:54:03, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On September 29, 2001 at 10:41:37, Miguel A. Ballicora wrote: >>Super-linear speedups are "probably" impossible but so far I did not see that >>they are "provably" impossible. I would settle with "They are believed to be >>impossible". >> >>Regards, >>Miguel > > >They simply _are_ impossible. Unless you believe in perpetual >motion, infinite compression, a fire that will burn forever, etc. Take a human who can move a 200-pound box, but only by scraping it along the ground. Compute the time it takes him to move 10 such boxes 100 yards. Assume that two humans can move a 200-pound box more easily. Can they move a 200-pound box more than twice as fast as one human? Would this violate laws against perpetual motion? Of course not. It is perfectly valid to consider working in parallel rather than working serially. The mechanics of the task might change, resulting in much increased efficiency -- they can lift the box off the ground. Two workers cooperating to perform a task, do not *have* to go less than or equal to the speed of two workers, each of whom does exactly half of a task that can be fairly divided in two. There exists the opportunity for synergy. The argument that the above violates the prohibition against perpetual motion is fallacious. bruce
This page took 0.04 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.