Chapter 22
Ten Algorithmic Problems Yet to Solve
IN THIS CHAPTER
Performing text searches easily
Detecting differences in individual words
Considering the feasibility of hypercomputers
Employing one-way functions, and more …
Algorithms have indeed been around for centuries, so you’d think that scientists would have discovered and solved every algorithm by now. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Solving a particular algorithm often presents a few more questions that the algorithm doesn’t solve and that didn’t seem apparent until someone did come up with the solution. In addition, changes in technologies and lifestyle often present new challenges that call for yet more algorithms. For example, the connected nature of society and the use of robots have both increased the need for new algorithms.
As presented in Chapter 1, algorithms are a series of steps used to solve a problem, and you shouldn’t confuse them with other entities, such as equations. An algorithm is never a solution in search of a problem. No one would create a series of steps to solve a problem that doesn’t yet exist ...
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