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"You can raise the argument that intractability is relative. You can boldly thrust forward Moore's Law - like a child that's made a macaroni bird in art class - but if you do, you're not getting it. Intractable is bigger than Moore's Law. Intractable is like, thermodynamics big." - Johnath

Nice quote, but did he bargain on an infinitely fast CPU?

ince the dawn of time, man has yearned to extract more CPU cycles from the calculating machine we call the 'computer'. And no wonder either; faster speeds equate to more fun, greater productivity, and further scientific progress. In a way, we've been spoilt with our multi GHz CPUs. Compared to 20 years ago, most tasks now are performed in the blink of an eye......But on the other hand, the reverse could be true. Maybe we subconsciously expect infinite levels of speed, and detest the limits we have to endure. Perhaps we loathe optimising and pandering to the whims of the CPU only to find that the running speed still isn't up to par. For sure, there are many problems and tasks which require exponentially faster speeds than anything we have today. And even our best algorithms don't come close (or can't ever come close) to solving them.And that's what this article will address. The potential that lies in an. Not just one that is super humungously fast, but one which pops out the answer in O(0) each time, every time. Finally, we'd be able to beat a 9th dan Go player, and words such as "intractable" or "combinatorial explosion" would lose their sting. Of course, truly infinite speed is as much a pipe dream as infinite free energy, and it's true that we may reach a temporary upper limit to CPU power by 2020. But we always have the promise of multi-core and even quantum computing to help quench our thirst. While truly infinite speed may be forever beyond our reach, these technologies may eventually help materialize at least some of what's below.And hence we present the top 20 (well 17) applications that would benefit most from infinite speed (or close enough), starting with the least desirable, and finishing with the dream application.