Ray Kurzweil discusses having a universe filled with Computronium. He discusses this happening within 200 years if wormholes or some other means allow faster than light travel. What would the ...

In the realm of theoretical computer science, the concept of computational limits—boundaries that define what problems can or cannot be solved efficiently—is fundamental. These limits not only shape ...

Jie Wang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

At first glance, the big news coming out of this summer’s conference on the theory of computing appeared to be something of a letdown. For more than 40 years, researchers had been trying to find a ...

A major advance reveals deep connections between the classes of problems that computers can — and can’t — possibly do. At first glance, the big news coming out of this summer’s conference on the ...

The French scholar Pierre-Simon Laplace crisply articulated his expectation that the universe was fully knowable in 1814, asserting that a sufficiently clever “demon” could predict the entire future ...

1. Challenges -- Tour of the United States -- An impossible task? -- One problem at a time -- Road map of the book -- 2. Origins of the problem -- Before the mathematicians -- Euler and Hamilton -- ...