Message #402

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Conquered Everest?
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 01:21:50 -0700

I think the practical skills required to solve these puzzles without
help are the same needed to solve any complex problem. That is the
ability to systematically break a large problem down into a series of
smaller ones.

Maybe someone will solve a 6D cube before too long. I suspect that is
probably inevitable. My real question is whether that will be very fun.
Maybe what we really need is a breakthrough in UI design that will allow
sufficiently patient humans to solve cubes of any number of dimensions.
I have difficulty imagining what might look like but I would not be
surprised if the general design of such an interface might also be
usefully applied to other very practical searching and optimizing
problems. I would doubt that it would look like the MC4D interface but
then I would not have guessed that a workable 5D version could be based
on our design but clearly I was wrong. Perhaps with enough controls to
show and hide carefully selected parts of the puzzles, a true
n-dimensional UI really could be based on our design. I just don’t know.

-Melinda

Mark Oram wrote:
> Melinda,
>
> I too had the peaks in mind metaphorically. After all,
> if one likens the 3^5 to Everest, one needs other
> names to invoke for the 4^5 and 5^5, or n^6 etc.
> Perhaps humans will walk on the REAL Olympus Mons
> before a 3^6 solution exists??
>
> I have no doubt that you, or anyone else reading this,
> could solve the 3^5, or other variants, if you wanted
> to. Maybe the question then becomes (in the interests
> of starting a possible discussion) to what practical
> use if any could these accomplishments be put?
>
>
>
>
> — Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Mark,
>>
>> When I spoke about still-higher peaks I was still
>> talking about the
>> metaphoric types. Most specifically, there are still
>> the 5^4 and the
>> seductively symmetric 5^5 still waiting to be
>> climbed. Judging from your
>> description of the difficulty of solving the 3^5 I
>> still stand by my
>> prediction that we’re likely to see exactly one
>> solution to the 5^5. It
>> sounds like it could take most of a year to
>> accomplish that and it’s
>> hard to imagine more than one person finishing it
>> unless perhaps we end
>> up with a race. Either way it sounds awful but
>> remember, any first
>> solution will only happen once! ;-)
>>
>> Thank you for your description of the process. It
>> made it possible for
>> me to get an idea of how one might actually solve a
>> 5D cube which until
>> now just seemed like a miracle.
>>
>> -Melinda
>>
>> markoram109 wrote:
>>
>>> Melinda,
>>>
>>> Thank-you very much for your kind words of
>>>
>> support: these really
>>
>>> make all the difference for me in these crazy
>>>
>> undertakings :)
>>
>>> Certainly there are many higher peaks out there:
>>>
>> Olympus Mons, on
>>
>>> the planet Mars, is 3x higher than Everest for a
>>>
>> start, and I think
>>
>>> there are cliffs on Miranda (a moon of Uranus)
>>>
>> even higher. So as
>>
>>> you say there are always new peaks to aim for.
>>>
>> Still, I’m not sure
>>
>>> I’ll be emabrking on any of these new challenges
>>>
>> just yet….
>>
>>> What I will be doing soon is expanding just a
>>>
>> little on how this
>>
>>> solution worked out for me, with the hope that it
>>>
>> will be useful
>>
>>> (and inspiring?!) for anyone else attempting to
>>>
>> solve any of the 5-D
>>
>>> versions.
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> — In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green
>>>
>> <melinda@…> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hey, congratulations! That’s beyond amazing to
>>>>
>> have solved a 5D cube. I haven’t even solved the 4D
>> version!
>>
>>>> You did right by sending your log file to Roice
>>>>
>> and I see that he’s added you to the
>> hall-of-insanity though I don’t see your log file
>>
>>>> listed there. BTW, even though you have clearly
>>>>
>> conquered Everest, there are still higher peaks
>> waiting for the first person to conquer them too!
>> ;-)
>>
>>>> -Melinda
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>
>
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