They asserted what’s now known as the Cobham–Edmonds thesis: an algorithm should be considered “efficient” if it runs in what’s called “polynomial time”—that is, O(n2), O(n3), or in fact n to the power of any number at all. A problem, in turn, is considered “tractable” if we know how to solve it using an efficient algorithm. A problem we don’t know how to solve in polynomial time, on the other hand, is considered “intractable.” And at anything but the smallest scales, intractable problems are beyond the reach of solution by computers, no matter how powerful.*
