Isn't every computer scientist supposed to work on P=NP in their sleep? Or maybe it's their lack of sleep.
I forget who it was that said it first, but one of my profs relayed it as serious advice: that every computer scientist should dable in P=NP in his early years, then go off and do something useful for a few decades, and come back to it to dable again.
I'm not sure that's the best guess. While it would be the obvious choice, I don't think much could be said to be "earthshaking" there, and Knuth isn't one to throw out hyperboles. I think it will be something new, almost certainly in a different field, and it will involve looking at an unsolved problem in a way different than it's previously been approached from, much like TeX. I can't wait to see what he announces.
But then, it is not announced as an earthshaking announcement, but as an "earthshaking announcement."
The quotes make it sufficiently vague that it could be anything from "there was a typo in a comment in the metafont source", to "Vol. 4 is off to the printer."
I had it on my list to post a reminder of this today as well-- looks like you beat me to it.
I'm curious to see other's guesses here. My personal hunch is that he is going to declare TeX complete, and move the version number to Pi (as he had planned to do upon his death.)
Back when it was first announced, everybody made jokes about the new TeX policy and every document made using TeX will have to be reviewed before publishing :)
In the same spirit as his objections to the old style delta (http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/cm.html) he'll be making comments regarding whether we should be writing with $\phi$ or $\varphi$
Unfortunately, it appears to be just a lecture called "Earthshaking Announcement". The previous one was called "All Questions Answered" and I'm sure he left some questions unanswered.
I really think this is going to be one of the most overblown things ever. I seriously doubt it's actually going to be interesting at all. Really. He's being sarcastic with the title of a lecture. Calm down fanboys.
I've seen a bunch of companies/ people using this strategy lately. Making it appear like they're going to make a revolutionary statement that is going to change the world.
An "idea implemented." Unfortunately is rarely turns out to be something concrete - it's usually an idea with a significant buy in... But an idea that's a step in the right direction... A call to action...
No offense taken, but the point is, there's no "like these." You're comparing two very different things. Knuth's comment was aimed at piqueing the interest of the tiny fraction of people who might want to come see him at a TeX celebration-- which has absolutely nothing to do with hyperbole in marketing press releases.
> I've seen a bunch of companies/ people using this strategy lately. Making it appear like they're going to make a revolutionary statement that is going to change the world.
Tomorrow @ 5:30 PM PDT, to be more precise. http://tug.org/tug2010/program.html Given how many people on HN are interested in this, I'm curious to see how fast, and in what manner, the announcement gets posted here. Perhaps someone tweets it directly from the conference and the tweet gets posted here. I'm hoping for a post here by 6:00 PM.
Using new features of TeX π, Knuth has inserted interrobangs along critical fault lines, and he intends to offset the entire West Coast, widening rivers and reflowing the Pacific; the Bay Area will be left flushed and right ragged, creating many widows and orphans. The only way to stem this bold, unjustified plot is to transfer a well-padded figure of $175,921,860,444.16 immediately to the Bank of San Serriffe.
What's the purpose of this besides having us speculate? Just have a post tomorrow with whatever Knuth announced and it's enough to have a good discussion.
He's announcing that he's retiring. He had some health issues in 2006 so I really hope it's not related to that. Of course his consciousness will be uploaded to a positronic brain so he'll be around for a while yet.
If he was actually retiring, he's not the kind of guy to call that an "Earthshaking announcement."
Incidentally, I went to his last Stanford lecture, the lecture hall with maybe ~400 seats was totally full, and there were exactly 3 women in the audience.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 181 ms ] threadI forget who it was that said it first, but one of my profs relayed it as serious advice: that every computer scientist should dable in P=NP in his early years, then go off and do something useful for a few decades, and come back to it to dable again.
Probably a big TeX thing, given the context.
It is rare enough to be called 'Earthshaking' but the probability is really thin.
I'm curious to see other's guesses here. My personal hunch is that he is going to declare TeX complete, and move the version number to Pi (as he had planned to do upon his death.)
ObOntopic: it most lilkely is him declaring version pi.
An "idea implemented." Unfortunately is rarely turns out to be something concrete - it's usually an idea with a significant buy in... But an idea that's a step in the right direction... A call to action...
Examples:
1) Cisco announced a really fast router that was going to "change the Internet forever." (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/09/what-cisco-lacks-in-s...)
2) Bloombox (http://bloomenergy.com)
Of course, as others have pointed out maybe he's just playing the fool.
Did not mean to garner offense.
Valve at E3. Bastards.
That's what I hope we'll find out tomorrow. Too hopeful?
Not trying to be a dick, just wondering if you have a point if you're not kidding.
OTOH, maybe Twitter will continue their overengineering by porting everything to MMIX.
I just can't think of anything besides P=NP (or proving P!=NP) that Knuth is likely to announce that I'd consider earth-shattering.
In the end, it's likely to be a decent but not earth-shattering discovery. It better not be a TeX announcement.
If he walks out, says "42" and leaves, I'm selling my copies of "The Art of Computer Programming".
Incidentally, I went to his last Stanford lecture, the lecture hall with maybe ~400 seats was totally full, and there were exactly 3 women in the audience.
If it was something as significant as P{=,!=}NP, I really doubt he would have been able to keep this hidden for any length of time.