Arthur Norman Complexity Theory Quotes

there is something in the lecture course which may not have been visible so far, which is reality ...
[The Travelling Salesman Problem] The company has a completely and utterly fascist accounts department ... it is concerned with, in the end, about total cost control, and if they [the salesman] don't [keep costs down], they will be allowed to go. And the company has their base on the top of Beachy Head, so that when they go, it is initially southwards, but then mostly downwards
they describe problems like this as being 'non-elementary' [of complexity order 2^2^2^2^ ... ^2^2^2^2^2]
I'm quite happy to do that, and that makes the thing more concise, and with luck, more incomprehensible
there are others of a more materialistic bent who don't believe in guardian angels ... miserable lot ... however, they do believe in multiprocessors ... [see diagram below]

Dr. Norman's view of a non-deterministic Turing machine :

[ Picture : Nondeterministic Turing Machine with Angel protecting it ]

being a Turing machine is not anything special, just a convenience
if you haven't settled on your final year project, perhaps you would like to write a C compiler that turns code into Turing machines : I don't see anything wrong with that
you may need to have the Turing Machine Rehabilitation Crash Course, to prove to you that Turing machines are the best computers for programming ... they are nearly as good as a ZX80
Turing machines are really groovy, they have this infinite tape ...
the natural thing is to feel a pang of pain and a chill run through you [when combining regular expressions & Turing Machines]

if you were to implement this in ML, most of you would say : SCREAM, run from the room in terror, but we could set it as tickable problem whatever, and give it to part 1A ... and that idea seems rather pleasing doesn't it?
well, I'm not being economical with the truth ... I'm supressing it ... but I'm supressing it so that you can get the greater truth
[if complexity lives upto its title] if that proves to be the case, I will be the winner, as not many of you will attempt the exam questions
let's go back to Einstein, work out the mass of the universe, and turn it into energy, to use to solve our problem
again I am abusing my notation as much as possible

show that one of these theorists that stand on top of tall marble columns is acceptable
when I don my invisible academic hat, rather than the pragmatic hat I have been challenged to wear in future lectures ...
it isn't contorted & unnatural, and might be something people might even want to solve
the elaboration of this that the wild, woolly-haired theorist produced is ...
the results [of the RLFA course] might be of some use to someone else, albeit some ferocious theorist

this is very curious ... as if someone was eating the wrong sort of mushrooms when they invented this sort of thing
[question : is Knuth still alive?] yes he is, at least I haven't seen an obiturary for him ... last time I saw him he was full of beans, and would have been a complete and utter pain to have around