Fridge Brilliance in SR Options

[kjones]

Fridge Brilliance is a term that describes something that seems stupid when you first see it, but upon further reflection (and possible fanwank-y explanation) makes perfect sense.

I always thought that the "Heinrich maneuver" described in Unwired was a cheap handwave that didn't really explain anything. However, in one of the stories in Renraku Arcology: Shutdown, they show one of Deus' otaku solving a binary satisfiability problem really fast. As you all know, SAT is an NP-complete problem. So either the otaku have proven that P = NP, or they just have an incredibly efficient reduction to a polynomial-time algorithm. (With good coefficients!)

What bits of the 6th world (plot-wise or mechanical) have you managed to retroactively justify?

[Method]

computer stuff

Uh... yeah thats what I was thinking... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/question.gif)

There was a rash of threads recently about how the NAN could have taken back half of North America. Some arguments were tenuous at best, but there were some that made more sense than the stuff initially presented in the canon timeline. I think thats a big one for me.

[Kagetenshi]

So either the otaku have proven that P = NP, or they just have an incredibly efficient reduction to a polynomial-time algorithm. (With good coefficients!)

That's not an "either", a general reduction to a polynomial-time algorithm is a proof by construction that P=NP.

However, that's not actually what happens in RA:S. First off, it's not general—Puck guarantees that the answer is unique, which might not affect the complexity (I'd have to spend time I don't have proving whether or not it does or researching the answer) but is a wrinkle. More importantly, though, look at what Devon Eurich says, keeping in mind that he's a former member of the Renraku AI project and can be expected to know these issues backwards and forwards—he says "No child could solve the general satisfiability problem for so large a system without the aid of a computer." Never mind the possible interpretation that an adult could solve it, he's clearly of the opinion that it's tractable for a computer of the times, suggesting a fairly forgiving bound on the size of the system.

So for those of us who don't play SR4, what is this Heinrich Maneuver?

Edit: ok, based on the length of the answer we can ignore the interpretation that an adult could solve it, but nevertheless Eurich clearly believes that a computer can.

~J

[Kazuhiro]

Not sure if this counts, but I like that everything in 2070 has an analogue in 2010. In 2010, cybernetic limbs are practically market-ready, Predator drones patrol the skies, and the Internet is at a stage that they probably didn't expect in 1989. All that's missing is simsense.

[hobgoblin]

the limbs today are not really two way interfaces with the nervous system. At best they make use of skin sensors and rewired nerves so that small muscles on the skin move and map those movements to limb movements. Basically yes, simsense is the big stumbling block, and it has not come into existence as the brain still confuses the heck out of us. Reading what its do during a movement is one thing, recreating it using computers are a whole different ballgame...

[Method]

Interestingly enough, this was just in Wired.

[hobgoblin]

still just a sensor, but interesting non the less.

[Method]

Yep. But accurate mapping of the cerebral motor cortex would be a huge leap forward in cyberlimb technology. If it pans out of course...