Education Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the field an answer needs. A question sitting between two disciplines appears under both, which is why the group counts add up to more than the number of questions.
Not Yet Classified 4
Algorithms and Complexity Theory
Does P equal NP?
Open Algorithms and Complexity Theory
Why It Is Open The P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in theoretical computer science: it asks whether every decision problem whose proposed positive answer can be quickly verified can also be quickly solved. Stephen Cook introduced its precise statement in 1971, and despite half a century of effort nobody has proved the classes equal or unequal; it is one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems, with a one million dollar prize for the first correct solution.
What Would Settle It A proof that every problem in NP admits a polynomial time algorithm, or a proof that some NP problem admits none. Either direction would be among the most consequential results in the history of mathematics and computing.
Expertise Needed Computational complexity theory, Mathematics
Question posed in
Wikipedia: P versus NP Problem, Opening and History sections.
Public Key Cryptography
Can large integers be factored efficiently on a classical computer?
Open Public Key Cryptography
Why It Is Open When the numbers are sufficiently large, no efficient non quantum integer factorization algorithm is known, yet it has not been proven that no such algorithm exists. The presumed difficulty of this problem is what the security of RSA public key encryption and signatures rests on, so the gap between no algorithm known and no algorithm possible carries the weight of most of the world's encrypted traffic. Peter Shor showed in 1994 that a quantum computer could factor in polynomial time, which sharpens rather than settles the classical question.
What Would Settle It An efficient classical factoring algorithm, which would break RSA, or a proof that none exists, which would put its security on solid ground; large scale quantum computers would change the practical stakes either way.
Expertise Needed Computational number theory, Cryptography
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Integer Factorization, Introduction and Time complexity sections.
Erlang
Is Erlang named for mathematician Agner Krarup Erlang or as a syllabic abbreviation of Ericsson Language?
Open Erlang
Why It Is Open Sources describe the name as presumed by telephony-switch engineers to honor Danish mathematician Agner Krarup Erlang, and also as a syllabic abbreviation of Ericsson Language, the company where the language was created; no single authoritative account settles which motivation, if not both, actually drove the choice.
What Would Settle It A primary statement from Joe Armstrong, Robert Virding or Mike Williams, or an Ericsson internal record from the 1980s, definitively naming the intended derivation of the name.
Expertise Needed Computing history
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Erlang (programming language), History section.
Rob Pike
What is Rob Pike's exact birth date?
Open Rob Pike
Why It Is Open Wikipedia and the other biographical pages read for this Computing Atlas pioneer entity give only a birth YEAR (1956) for Rob Pike; no day or month is published on his own Wikipedia page, his personal site (herpolhode.com/rob), or any other source consulted in the 2026-08-29 deepen pass on this entity.
What Would Settle It Rob Pike or a primary biographical source (a Bell Labs or Google staff record, a conference bio he supplied himself) publishing the day and month of his birth.
Expertise Needed biographical research
Question posed in
Wikipedia: Rob Pike, Rob Pike Wikipedia infobox gives year only.