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Subject: Re: OT: "Impossible" vs. "improbable"

Author: Shep

Date: 00:41:38 11/16/99

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On November 15, 1999 at 15:28:21, Sven Reichard wrote:

>On November 15, 1999 at 03:43:15, Shep wrote:
>
>>As a mathematician, I have to jump in here and correct you. :)
>>You probably mean "statistically improbable".
>>It is not _impossible_ to find the optimal CM settings (or to win the lottery a
>>million successive times) because the number of settings is finite, so you could
>>(given a large, but finite amount of time) try them all out and come up with the
>>best one.
>>
>>Sorry to be nit-picking, but I felt that had to be said. :))
>>
>>---
>>Shep
>
>As another mathematician, I have to jump in here and correct you :))
>If there were an algorithm that would give us a numerical playing strength of
>any given engine, your approach would work (in a finite number of steps).
>However, lacking such an algorithm, your optimization problem (on a discrete
>space, to make things worse) is not well-defined.

I stand corrected. :) Thank you.
Ah, the good University times, "optimization problem on a discrete space" rings
so many bells...
Maybe some Lift & Project algorithm, Gomory Cuts or good old Branch & Bound? ;-)

OK, enough of this. People are starting to get scared. :))

---
Shep



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