Re: JSH: SF: Finally, surrogate factoring

On Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:54:03 -0400, Rick Decker <rdecker@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:



Tim Peters wrote:
[...]

What I don't understand is how anything other than that outcome could be
_hoped_ for here. No amount of rearranging and cross-substituting the
initial equations (whatever they may be) is going to yield new information,
and there's never a step that even requires the quantities to be integers
(as opposed to, e.g., arbitrary complex numbers). How can someone imagine
that insight into integer factorization could result from this insight-less
symbol-pushing?

I think that what we interpret as obfuscation on James' part is actually
a consequence of the fact that his understanding is extremely shallow.
This is, I think, the reason that he thinks his "prime counting
function" is truly new and innovative--he really is incapable of even
the slightest bit of abstraction that to all mathematicians is as
natural as breathing.

Huh. Ya think?

Both you guys must be new here.

As usual, I couldn't make sense of his original writeup before you showed
the correct result of completing the square wrt y first, at which point I
could work backward from that to deduce what you thought James was trying to
say. Also as usual, you got that right. Therefore :-) you must also know
why he thinks this kind of approach _could_ yield something useful.

See above. The kind of self-editing we're accustomed to by inclination
and training is something he simply doesn't get. For example, a tiny bit
of thinking makes it obvious that no matter what collection of linear
equations one starts with, as long as they have a unique solution
the end result of the "small mountain of tedious manipulation" will
be the completely unsurprising T = g_1 * g_1, which we knew from the
start.


************************

David C. Ullrich
.

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