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Why Computer Scientists Consult Oracles
Hypothetical devices that can quickly and accurately answer questions have become a powerful tool in computational complexity theory.
The first attempts at determining the relationship between P and NP used an elegant trick called diagonalization that had been essential for other major results in computer science. In the 1980s and 1990s, researchers discovered ways to harness quantum physics to rapidly solve certain problems that seemed hard for ordinary “classical” computers. In 1994, the applied mathematician Peter Shor was inspired by a recent oracle result to develop a fast quantum algorithm for factoring large numbers — a task whose apparent difficulty underlies the cryptographic systems that keep our online data secure.
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