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bobimyesterday at 8:23 PM16 repliesview on HN

This is disturbing to realize that pi then contains all the past and future knowledge, including when I'll pass away.


Replies

mike_hockyesterday at 8:32 PM

So does every other random infinite sequence of bits. The unintuitive part comes from infinity, not pi.

It also doesn't contain all past and future knowledge because it also contains all possible falsehoods about the past and future in a way that's indiscernible from the truth.

Encoding information as an offset into a pseudorandom sequence is no more storage efficient than storing the information directly.

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nosioptaryesterday at 8:34 PM

The worst part is that it contains Star Wars 4-6 from an alternate timeline where Disney did a reboot casting Chris Pratt as Han Solo.

(Fun fact: "Chrispratt" is an ancient Californian word that means "Joel McHale didn't want the role.")

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arialdomartiniyesterday at 10:13 PM

You will love reading Jorge Borges The Library of Babel.

https://dn760100.eu.archive.org/0/items/TheLibraryOfBabel/ba...

matheusmoreiratoday at 6:31 AM

All knowledge already exists. Humans are merely discovering it.

All knowledge is information. All information is sequences of bits. All sequences of bits are numbers. All numbers already exist.

All files in a computer are sequences of bits. Intellectual work creates files. Intellectual work is number discovery.

Humans are interesting number generators. Humans are anti-random number generators.

RetroTechietoday at 1:27 PM

Worse - it's also possible to calculate your time of death! That is: assuming enough compute & knowing how many digits to calculate.

xp84yesterday at 9:27 PM

If it makes you feel better, consider that it also contains all plausible and implausible falsehoods about your demise as well.

Yokohiiiyesterday at 9:40 PM

The person who starts reading ahead into pi will always gets the freshest numbers.

Perfect crypto!

OkayPhysicistyesterday at 8:43 PM

So does a calendar, if you you buy them enough years in advance.

thih9yesterday at 9:17 PM

It also contains all possible falsehoods and comes with no way to distinguish what's true from what isn't.

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skulkyesterday at 8:26 PM

this statement is equivalent to "pi is a normal number." While most real numbers are normal and pi is suspected to be so, it isn't known.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number

cadamsdotcomyesterday at 8:34 PM

Fear not! It’s probably so deep in pi that you’d pass away listening to someone tell you where!

nighthawk454yesterday at 8:46 PM

And also all the days you don’t, so, by itself not very meaningful. Especially since you can’t tell which one is right in advance. In some sense, so does a calendar

layer8yesterday at 11:32 PM

It also contains all past and future fake news, and you don’t know which is which.

koolalayesterday at 8:42 PM

It isn't actually proven true.

deadbabetoday at 3:00 AM

A not so distant calendar also has the day you will pass away.

anthonjyesterday at 8:54 PM

So does a random number generator

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