Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
quantum bogosort en · NOUN
Meanings
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(humorous, uncountable) A hypothetical sorting algorithm which generates a random permutation of its input (like in bogosort) using a quantum source of entropy, checks if the list is sorted, and, if it is not, destroys the universe. Assuming that the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is true, this algorithm will result in at least one surviving universe where the input was successfully sorted in O(n) time (thus making it faster than quicksort).
ECMA 5 lacks support for the speedy Quantum Bogosort.
2011 November 4, Dr J R Stockton, “sorting columns”, in comp.lang.javascript (Usenet):Even quantum-bogosort can't keep up with Intelligent Design Sort. ¶ (IDS makes no changes to its input, on the theory that "they are already sorted according to a higher purpose.")
2009 October 2, Tim Rentsch, “Selection-Sort in C”, in comp.lang.c (Usenet):And from that we can conclude that in some parallel worlds, a machine to implement the Quantum Bogosort (theoretically the fastest possible sorting algorithm) has been invented.
2007 January 22, Logan Kearsley, “How the mind plays tricks.”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):Implementing quantum bogosort increased my script's performance by 50%, but I still feel a little bit guilty about my computer killing quadrillions of sentient beings a second.