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Letter
From
the letter by V. Uspensky to A. Ershov
July
1st, 1979
Dear
Andrei Petrovich!
…
And now some information to ponder over.
This information would not be so
relevant in view of
the initial participants list, but now
it is quite timely. The person in
question is A.O. Slisenko.
Anatol A. Slisenko is a PhD and a senior
research fellow of Leningrad department
of the USSR AS
Steklov Mathematical Institute. One
should think he is the best country’s
specialist in complexity of
concrete computation (not in the spirit
of general Blum acceleration theorems,
but more like, say,
how to estimate an algorithm for matrix
multiplication). In this capacity he
carries great authority
with specialists here and abroad
including potential symposium
participants. If discussions of these
topics are planned in Urgench, his
presence would be undoubtedly helpful
– at least for competent
contacts with our guests. His home
address is:…
I
am somewhat concerned with the title of
my presentation, initially (conventionally)
named “Great
mathematical discoveries associated with
the notion of algorithm”. Most
probably one may consider
among the same theorems on various
decidabilities and undecidabilities. And
I even don’t intend to
mention such theorems (even the great
example of a group with insoluble
identity problem I reckon
irrelevant). Undecidability of the
problem of Diophantine equations
insolubility will be mentioned
only in connection with Diophantity of
denumerable sets – the fact that is
really fundamental (and
the fact that as a result the Gilbert
problem was solved is rather incidental).
Should not the talk be
named “What does the algorithm theory
give?” or in some other way in order
to not to hurt the
feelings of authors of great discoveries
in the field of decidability and
undecidability? I, for
example, intend to speak about
applications of the notion of randomness,
of computable operators –
and, generally, about things of
conceptual nature (although I find
difficulty in formulating what is
it). What do you think about all this
and first of all about the title that
can disorient the audience?
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