quantum bogosort

English

Noun

quantum bogosort (uncountable)

1. (computing, humorous) 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).

   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.

   • 2007 January 22, Logan Kearsley, “How the mind plays tricks.”, in rec.arts.sf.composition‎^[1] (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.

   • 2009 October 2, Tim Rentsch, “Selection-Sort in C”, in comp.lang.c‎^[2] (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.")

   • 2011 November 4, Dr J R Stockton, “sorting columns”, in comp.lang.javascript‎^[3] (Usenet):

     ECMA 5 lacks support for the speedy Quantum Bogosort.

Usage notes

• Quantum bogosort is an in-joke among computer scientists, and is one of many humorous or nonsensical sorting algorithms.

Further reading

• quantum bogosort on Wikipedia.Wikipedia