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How many human beings on the planet could have seen that pattern, realized it was familiar, and then figured out what it was? It's like an inside practical joke
by 11thEarlOfMar 9y ago
How many human beings on the planet could have seen that pattern, realized it was familiar, and then figured out what it was? It's like an inside practical joke, or, the ultimate Easter Egg.
- Retra 9y agoLots of people. That's why Wolfram kept getting requests to identify it. That's why the building was designed with that pattern. It's not like there's anything particularly obscure here.
- 11thEarlOfMar 9y agoHmm. This is a train station, yes? What % of people transiting the station see that pattern and think, 'Oh, that's a cellular automata.'. Clearly more than zero, and perhaps it's not considered obscure by HN readers, but likely a very, very small % of passengers will recognize what it is. Wolfram himself seemed to be surprised.
- Retra 9y agoI guess I just got the sense from your post that it would take a 1-in-6-billion person to recognize the pattern rather than something more realistic like 1-in-ten-thousand.