In computational complexity theory, P and NP are two classes of problems. P is the class of decision problems that a deterministic Turing machine can solve in polynomial time. In useful terms, any ...

Theory of Computation offers a rigorous mathematical framework that underpins our understanding of what can be computed and how efficiently these computations may be performed. It encompasses ...

The prolific researcher found deep connections between randomness and computation and spent a career influencing cryptographers, complexity researchers and more. For more than 40 years, Avi Wigderson ...

One designs clocks to be as regular as physically possible. So much so that they are the very instruments of determinism. The coin flip plays a similar role; it expresses our ideal of the utterly ...

The British mathematician and pioneer of computing Alan Turing published a paper in 1936 which described a Universal Machine, a theoretical model of a computer processor that would later become known ...

Part of “Complexity Theory,” a new column on the tangled questions of our technological age. The very first introductory seminar that I was enrolled in at Stanford was CS 56N: Great Inventions and ...

While the invention of calculus by Newton and Leibniz in the 17th century set the stage for the so-called industrial revolution and unleashed unparalleled analytical power to fast-track human ...

As a practising computer scientist, I thought I had a fairly good grasp of Alan Turing’s many contributions to the field. But The Turing Guide, by Jack Copeland, Jonathan Bowen, Mark Sprevak and Robin ...