Is this question about universes in which P=NP worth reopening?

Question

Which was the first novel set in universes where P=NP?

I've been wanting this to be reopened since before I was a mod.

Since it's been asked, the community reaction to 'first of'type questions had softened remarkably.

I think the answers within are good quality examples of how to answer such questions. And I think the question in its own seems genuine.

What does the community think?

Answer 1

Yes, it should be reopened.

We have quite a few “first of” questions on the site, which have been generally well-received. Picking a few examples at random:

• What was the first story to be set in the future?
• Who was the first robot to refer to organic lifeforms as "meatbags"?
• First use of the "captive human brains as computers" idea?
• What is the first work to feature a planet that is one city?

Your example fits into the mould of these posts.

I think these are good and interesting questions:

• They tell us something about the history of the genre
• They are often an introduction to important works (cf. story ID questions)
• The best answer is usually easy to distinguish – it’s hard to argue about the meaning of “first”. (Which doesn’t preclude the possibility of an earlier work which nobody has mentioned yet, but it does give an easy way to sort the existing answers.)

Finally, I’d note that the “not constructive” close reason has been gone for a while. If this question were to be re-asked today, I don’t think it would be closed.