4 ms·

Yup, imagination is infinite, you're paying writers to filter it.

by ajuc 3y ago

yreg 3y ago
I don't think that's true at all? I certainly don't have ideas for infinite stories in my mind. And I don't read a book to discover a good idea that I already had.
- ajuc 3y ago
  You can imagine pi for one trivial example. It has infinite details but it's not infinitely interesting. You can map it to infinite boring story (let's say John moves west/east depending on the next binary digit :) ). Kolmogorov complexity is the formalism around that distinction. EDIT now that I think about it - if you take PI in binary and interprete it as utf-8 - every single book every written (or that will ever be written) is in there somewhere :) And there are algorithm to calculate PI to arbitrary digit that are pretty simple.
  - spacebacon 3y ago
    Fascinating observation. How would you calculate at what point of pi converted to utf-8 contains a certain string?
    - latexr 3y ago
      That idea can be taken further to every digital file ever. You might both be interested in checking the pi file system. https://github.com/philipl/pifs https://github.com/philipl/pifs
      - spacebacon 3y ago
        Interesting 424242 is located at position 242423.
      - spacebacon 3y ago
        Very cool, FFS For Fucks Sake, another file system!
  - yreg 3y ago
    This is totally off-topic though. The ability to write an infinite number of strings using some system has no relation to human imagination. That's not how human imagination works.
    - ajuc 3y ago
      > That's not how human imagination works. Where do you think I got that idea from? Do you think I couldn't execute it?
  - fsflover 3y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=github.com/philipl https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=github.com/philipl
  - jon_richards 3y ago
    > take PI in binary and interprete it as utf-8 - every single book every written (or that will ever be written) is in there somewhere It isn’t proven that pi is normal. Also, even if you were to find a book in the sequence of pi, the index of where it starts would (generally) be vastly larger than the book itself.
- toolz 3y ago
  Imagination is the tool, not the storage space. The tool has boundless potential to create things in your mind. In other words, the tool is boundless or "infinite" in its ability. Given a mind that lasts forever there's no reason to believe there's a cap on what is possible for a mind to imagine and there are biological creatures that are immortal (e.g. hammerhead worms) so there's at least some reason to believe our minds could one day become immortal (at least in the sense of immune to decay).

Yup, imagination is infinite, you're paying writers to filter it.

by ajuc 3y ago

Yup, imagination is infinite, you're paying writers to filter it.

yreg 3y ago

I don't think that's true at all? I certainly don't have ideas for infinite stories in my mind. And I don't read a book to discover a good idea that I already had.

ajuc 3y ago
You can imagine pi for one trivial example. It has infinite details but it's not infinitely interesting. You can map it to infinite boring story (let's say John moves west/east depending on the next binary digit :) ). Kolmogorov complexity is the formalism around that distinction. EDIT now that I think about it - if you take PI in binary and interprete it as utf-8 - every single book every written (or that will ever be written) is in there somewhere :) And there are algorithm to calculate PI to arbitrary digit that are pretty simple.
- spacebacon 3y ago
  Fascinating observation. How would you calculate at what point of pi converted to utf-8 contains a certain string?
  - latexr 3y ago
    That idea can be taken further to every digital file ever. You might both be interested in checking the pi file system. https://github.com/philipl/pifs https://github.com/philipl/pifs
    - spacebacon 3y ago
      Interesting 424242 is located at position 242423.
    - spacebacon 3y ago
      Very cool, FFS For Fucks Sake, another file system!
- yreg 3y ago
  This is totally off-topic though. The ability to write an infinite number of strings using some system has no relation to human imagination. That's not how human imagination works.
  - ajuc 3y ago
    > That's not how human imagination works. Where do you think I got that idea from? Do you think I couldn't execute it?
- fsflover 3y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=github.com/philipl https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=github.com/philipl
- jon_richards 3y ago
  > take PI in binary and interprete it as utf-8 - every single book every written (or that will ever be written) is in there somewhere It isn’t proven that pi is normal. Also, even if you were to find a book in the sequence of pi, the index of where it starts would (generally) be vastly larger than the book itself.
toolz 3y ago
Imagination is the tool, not the storage space. The tool has boundless potential to create things in your mind. In other words, the tool is boundless or "infinite" in its ability. Given a mind that lasts forever there's no reason to believe there's a cap on what is possible for a mind to imagine and there are biological creatures that are immortal (e.g. hammerhead worms) so there's at least some reason to believe our minds could one day become immortal (at least in the sense of immune to decay).