{"id":711,"date":"2015-02-19T23:12:21","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T17:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abhinav.spsdarj.org\/?p=711"},"modified":"2015-03-28T22:31:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T17:01:09","slug":"what-are-some-trippy-thought-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abhinavkr.com\/musings\/2015\/02\/what-are-some-trippy-thought-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"What are some trippy thought experiments?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Answer by Jim Stone:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

You enter a library, . . .<\/h2>\n

. . . take a book off the shelf, and notice that it\u2019s filled with seemingly random strings of characters.<\/p>\n

You take another book off the shelf. Same thing.<\/p>\n

You examine a few more books and notice that all the books are quite similar.<\/p>\n

Each book has exactly 500 pages. Each page has exactly 40 lines. And each line has exactly 50 character slots.<\/p>\n

You examine a few more books and estimate that there are roughly 100 potential characters (including a blank spaces) that can go into each character slot.<\/p>\n

Hmmm. Interesting.<\/p>\n

Then you notice a sign that says \u201cSTART HERE<\/b>.\u201d You go there, pick the first book off the shelf, and see that every page is blank.<\/p>\n

You pick up the next book. It has a single letter \u2018A\u2019 in the first character slot, and all the other pages are blank.<\/p>\n

You pick up the third book. It has a single letter \u2018B\u2019 in the first character slot. And, again, all the other pages are blank.<\/p>\n

Then you look out across the library, and the shelves go on and on as far as the eye can see.<\/p>\n

Your best guess is that each book in this library is a unique combination of characters, and that, collectively, the books in the library cover all the combinations that can be formed in books of this nature.<\/p>\n

You do some quick math and calculate that there must be 100^(500*40*50) books — or 100^1,000,000 (one-hundred to the millionth power) books.<\/p>\n

A vast number indeed.<\/p>\n

Then you begin to wonder what books might be out there.<\/p>\n

There must be:<\/p>\n