From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Tue Aug 10 1999 - 23:15:13 MDT
Sasha Chislenko wrote:
> What is the point of having a GIMPS team, if everybody can just
> join personally, and then decide what to do with the prize, if any?
> How would the team work?
With a team you get higher GIMPS ranking, which entitles you to
smaller exponents which increases your chances of finding
the prized prime. If we each start as lone wolves, we
would rank in the 8 thousands and get lousy exponents.
If we take up my offer of 3.4 CPU years, we *start* at
a rank in the 700s, and move up more quickly.
Nowthen, Sasha you *do* raise an interesting question about
the prize money. Even if the stated *intention* is to donate
the prize to extropians, would it not be a temptation for the finder
to defect and pocket the loot? Of course. Even if one is part of
a team, with the stated intention of donation, one maintains the
*legal* and perhaps even moral right to defect, in whole
or in part. I acknowledge that possibility, and yet in a sense
this makes the whole adventure even more appealing. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:04:42 MST