If you’re thinking of this, you’re
misremembering—that bet (of $200,000) was that Vinay Deolalikar’s recent P
!= NP paper would not win the Clay Millenium prize. (In the comments,
Aaronson says
“P≠NP is exactly the ‘expected’ answer!”;
the bet was his way of keeping people from accusing him of rushing to judgment
when he said that he didn’t think the paper would turn out to successfully
prove that expected answer even though he hadn’t read the whole thing.)
Ah, you’re entirely right. I didn’t misremember—I read his blog rather religiously. I just apparently wasn’t quite awake when I wrote what he was betting on.
I should also clarify that he didn’t have anyone matching even a lesser amount in the case that the paper was indeed unsuccessful (which it appears to be as it stands, but Aaronson’s bet gives it a while to correct problems). His goal, which didn’t exactly work, was to get people to stop asking him about the paper. I say it didn’t work, because he probably got even more people commenting on the bet, and still a large number asking about the paper.
If you’re thinking of this, you’re misremembering—that bet (of $200,000) was that Vinay Deolalikar’s recent P != NP paper would not win the Clay Millenium prize. (In the comments, Aaronson says “P≠NP is exactly the ‘expected’ answer!”; the bet was his way of keeping people from accusing him of rushing to judgment when he said that he didn’t think the paper would turn out to successfully prove that expected answer even though he hadn’t read the whole thing.)
Ah, you’re entirely right. I didn’t misremember—I read his blog rather religiously. I just apparently wasn’t quite awake when I wrote what he was betting on.
I should also clarify that he didn’t have anyone matching even a lesser amount in the case that the paper was indeed unsuccessful (which it appears to be as it stands, but Aaronson’s bet gives it a while to correct problems). His goal, which didn’t exactly work, was to get people to stop asking him about the paper. I say it didn’t work, because he probably got even more people commenting on the bet, and still a large number asking about the paper.