This is really interesting and easy to understand, except I feel like I’m still missing a sense of how to actually apply this to the real world. I think this would really benefit from some examples of how one might apply each strategy to specific real-world problems.
This reply is several years late, but what’s a specific real-world problem (tho maybe one closer to a ‘toy’ problem like the mazes in this post) that you think would serve as a good example for which to (try to) apply the strategies described in the post?
I won’t give any spoilers, but I recommend “how to efficiently reach orbit without using a rocket” as a fun exercise. More generally, the goal is to reach orbit in a way which does not have exponentially-large requirements in terms of materials/resources/etc. (Rockets have exponential fuel requirements; see the rocket equation.)
Does “reach orbit” mean put something in orbit or put a human being (and not kill them)? The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
(Would you link to some spoilers? I’m curious what you have in mind as solutions!)
Live human being is indeed the harder version. I recommend the easier version first, harder version after.
The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
Ah, but what specific bottlenecks make it hard? What are the barriers, and what chunking of the problem do they suggest?
Also: it’s totally fine to assume that you can use rockets for setup, and then go back and remove that assumption later if the rocket-based initial setup is itself the main bottleneck to implementation.
This is really interesting and easy to understand, except I feel like I’m still missing a sense of how to actually apply this to the real world. I think this would really benefit from some examples of how one might apply each strategy to specific real-world problems.
This reply is several years late, but what’s a specific real-world problem (tho maybe one closer to a ‘toy’ problem like the mazes in this post) that you think would serve as a good example for which to (try to) apply the strategies described in the post?
I won’t give any spoilers, but I recommend “how to efficiently reach orbit without using a rocket” as a fun exercise. More generally, the goal is to reach orbit in a way which does not have exponentially-large requirements in terms of materials/resources/etc. (Rockets have exponential fuel requirements; see the rocket equation.)
Does “reach orbit” mean put something in orbit or put a human being (and not kill them)? The latter seems pretty hard to do, practically, with current technology, without using rockets (to at least setup an ‘efficient’ system initially).
(Would you link to some spoilers? I’m curious what you have in mind as solutions!)
Live human being is indeed the harder version. I recommend the easier version first, harder version after.
Ah, but what specific bottlenecks make it hard? What are the barriers, and what chunking of the problem do they suggest?
Also: it’s totally fine to assume that you can use rockets for setup, and then go back and remove that assumption later if the rocket-based initial setup is itself the main bottleneck to implementation.
This is totally cruel nerd sniping by-the-way :)
;)