7 ms·

A mathematically established lower bound on the longest possible go game is 10^10^48 [1]. While this isn't infinite, it's certainly large enough to be considere

A mathematically established lower bound on the longest possible go game is 10^10^48 [1]. While this isn't infinite, it's certainly large enough to be considered infinite in practice. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_and_mathematics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_and_mathematics

shasta 12y ago
Of course there are situations in mathematics where the tightest proven bound is 10^10^48 and the conjectured value is 7.
- howeman 12y ago
  Sure, but that number is a lower bound, not an upper bound.
  - shasta 12y ago
    Oh, wow, I misread that. So what's the protocol for dealing with trolls who refuse to concede?
    - howeman 12y ago
      At some point they fill in their territory and lose all of their stones. Eventually they will have no where to play.
- Someone 12y ago
  For what may or may not be an example, Graham's number is astonishingly huge, but math world (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GrahamsNumber.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GrahamsNumber.html) claims the answer to problem it is an upper bound for may even be larger than 11: "Graham and Rothschild (1971) also provided a lower limit by showing that N must be at least 6. More recently, Exoo (2003) has shown that N* must be at least 11 and provides experimental evidence suggesting that it is actually even larger."* In this case, I think it is safe to claim that the answer is at least 361!/8, though (but that may already include many truly silly games with suicidal moves in the opening or games that continue way past the time experienced players think they are over)