Jim choate says:
And you think no one would have noticed such a thing before.
Is a possibility...especially since I can find no reference to it or why it won't work.
You can't find a reference in the library on why you can't build a machine that cracks DES by repeatedly trying the digitized sound tracks of porno films, either. Maybe you should try that -- who knows, it might work.
I can pretty much hint to you that such a thing can't really be done in log base 2 of n time in the sense that I believe I can prove that
This is a joke right? Why in the world should the base have a damn thing to do with the algorithm?
Ahem. Perhaps you should have kept awake in school. Log base 2 of a number just means the number of bits in it.
any algorithm that did that would have to involve none of the basic four arithmetic operations on the numbers in question. (Algorithms involving no arithmetic on the numbers are still possible, but intuitively quite unlikely.)
Sorry, I don't follow your reasoning here at all. Could you clarify?
It is very unlikely to me that you can factor a number in time smaller than you can square it. Thats the point I'm trying to make. Sorry to burst your bubble. Oh, I'm sure you'll come back with some silly comment on "what does squaring the number have to do with anything" or some similar crud.
As far as I am concerned if it could be done w/ a neural network,
Oh, god. Neural networks have been invoked. As we know, neural networks are magical. They are always the answer. After all, we have a huge number of complex mathematical proofs out there that have been solved with neural nets -- why, the Reiman Hypothesis was recently proved by one, wasn't it? Or was that the exact measurement of Dan Quayle's IQ -- its so easy to confuse them. I tell you what, Jim. I'll pay you $10,000 if you can come up with an algorithm that factors numbers or even just breaks RSA in O(log(n)) time or less (where n is the length of the number being factored or the public key). I'd offer more, but it would be cruel. If you don't know what the notation O(f(n)) means, please don't come back asking. Perry