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This is why I love the idea of the "Library of Babel". The basic idea is that it's a vast "library" of every permutation of letters and punctuation in a book. A
by jedimastert 7y ago
This is why I love the idea of the "Library of Babel". The basic idea is that it's a vast "library" of every permutation of letters and punctuation in a book. Almost every book would be complete gibberish, but there much also be every book ever written, already created and waiting to be discovered.
Is any idea truly created, or simply discovered first? Or is the simple fact of having too many possibilities man that there's no possible way you can "discover" anything at all, and anything much be invented first to be looked for?
- jameshart 7y agowell, among other things that library contains an infinite number of proofs that P=NP. Also an infinite number of proofs of the opposite. Also an infinite number of base64-encoded FLACs of the original cast recording of a rock opera based on each of those proofs, performed by David Bowie and Justin Bieber. Obviously, an infinite number of them contain logical flaws. An infinite number of them are surprisingly listenable. You’re welcome to devote time to trying to discover them...
- SamBam 7y ago> well, among other things that library contains an infinite number of proofs that P=NP. Also an infinite number of proofs of the opposite. Of course, given our current understanding of math and logic, although there would be an infinite number of proofs both for and against P=NP, only ones on one side of the argument could ever be correct, and all the others must contain logical errors, however subtle. Assuming that the proof of P=NP isn't somehow outside of human comprehension, it means that, over an infinite period of time, a human could go over all those infinite proofs and still pick out the correct answer.