Things that Blow your Mind

[Kollega]

What blows my mind is immense idiocy of a select few people. As Einstein said,"there are two things infinite - universe and human stupidity. And i'm not sure about the former."

 

[Xcelsior]

I can't get my head around the fact that Russell Brand attracts women.

This, also to further how dicks get women aswell.

 

[Valate_v1legacy]

How to build a spaceship out of a galaxy... I mean I've thought about how to do it, but it would look WIERD due to light gravity and stupid stuff.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Well I could never understand cash flow in accounting... but that seems like a rather lame choice.

I think my mind is most often blown when I read something absolutely amazing in a book or something like that, like in Stephen Kings 'Lisey's Story' where he husband talks about when he was a kid and his brother going mental from the 'Bad Gunky' and trying to viciously murder him, or in the Dune series by Frank Herbert when no-ships come into it, ships that can't be detected by prescient individuals, or in the Hyperion Omnibus by Dan Simmons and the idea of the river which flows through warp portals and hence flows through 200 different planets. Those sorts of ideas are just amazing and I love them.

 

[Jadak]

Spoiler

I call bullshit on the infinite monkey theory.

Random characters will continue being random, I could make a program right not that went on an infinite loop with random letters, (which is what I'd expect of infinite monkeys) I don't care how long it was left running, it would never, ever, produce a duplicate of any significant literary work, let alone all of them.

Well, yes they would. Infinity is infinite, it goes on forever. As long as the odds of random letters coalescing into literature was more than zero, at some point the literature would have to be written.

In call bullshit on the infinite monkey theory.

Random characters will continue being random, I could make a program right not that went on an infinite loop with random letters, (which is what I'd expect of infinite monkeys) I don't care how long it was left running, it would never, ever, produce a duplicate of any significant literary work, let alone all of them.

Well, yes they would. Infinity is infinite, it goes on forever. As long as the odds of random letters coalescing into literature was more than zero, at some point the literature would have to be written.

No, it wouldn't. That would only work if you excluded the possibility of repetition, in which case, over the course of infinity, every possible combination of words, letters, whatever, would take place.

But that isn't the case, with nothing stopping the same random crap from being generated over and over again, you're just going to get random crap, over and over again.

No, you're right, there is nothing to stop random crap from being generated over & over again. But this does not change the fact that the odds of the random letters coincidently forming all literature is more than zero, & therefore under the circumstances it has to happen.

I like to believe that when the odds get small enough, like the age of the universe not being enough time for it to have the slightest chance of happening, that a form of universal rounding exists, and the odds are indeed zero.

I know math doesn't agree, it's more a matter of faith. Call it a personal religion

 

[Collymilad08]

People who don't get this are stupid.

They always talk about monkeys having no intelligence, not being able to type and stuff when it's COMPLETELY irrelevant.

The simple fact is they have an infinite amount of time, so eventually even hitting keys at random will type shakespear. If there was a time limit then the argument of "If it's random they might never hit that combo" is true, but since it's infinite, it doesn't apply, since the time limit just goes on and on till they do.

 

[TacticalAssassin1]

Sometimes I'll hear a song/artist for the first time, and I'll just lose it. Big smile on my face wondering how I'd been missing out, then a frown at why the hell good stuff is never popular and hence easy to find.

It happens about once a month, and I need to play that artist non stop for the next day.

Yeah that happens to me as well.

Illogical Logic. Logic that doesn't exist, but exists. Logic that makes no sense, yet makes perfect sense. Simply trying to comprehend the title I give to this way of thinking has destroyed some minds.

An example:
Friend: "How did he get the .32 magnum"
Me: "From the guy with the .32 magnum"
Friend: How did he take the .32 magnum from the guy with the .32 magnum?"
Me: "He shot the guy with the .32 magnum"
Friend: "With what?"
Me: "The .32 Magnum"
Friend: "But then how did he get the .32 magnum?"
Me: "He shot the guy with the .32 magnum."
Friend: " But how did he get the .32 magnum?"
Me: "From the guy with the .32 magnum."


That went on for about 15 minutes. It was awesome.
Schnip Schnipp

Haha yeah that's awesome that one.

What cant you get your head round?!

The size of space. 8D In my physics class we're doing various space-related things, and the sheer size of space is just mind boggling. The size of planets, the distance they are away from each other, and the fact that there are so many galaxies still out there, close to infinite light years away. I can't comprehend such a large number.

Also the amount of atoms making up everything we see and touch and know to be real. Also dark matter. Also... well, most things in physics. This subject blows my mind.

Yeah it is pretty cool. Makes ya feel small, duznt it?

 

[Fat Hippo]

What cant you get your head round?!

Master of Orion 3

I couldn't get more than an hour into that tedious, confusing bullshit, and went back to the second game. I'll stick with my armada of gold-plated Death Stars, thankyou!

You think that game is tedious? Try Hearts of Iron, most boring way to spend your time I've ever seen.

On Topic: Romantic comedies. How do these things still pull people into theaters? About 90% of them make me fall asleep, and I find it hard to believe that this only goes for guys.

 

[Robin_Lyon]

I can't get my head around the fact that Russell Brand attracts women.

I'd do him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abZyfRJXkkk&feature=fvw

 

[Insomniac55]

I call bullshit on the infinite monkey theory.

Random characters will continue being random, I could make a program right not that went on an infinite loop with random letters, (which is what I'd expect of infinite monkeys) I don't care how long it was left running, it would never, ever, produce a duplicate of any significant literary work, let alone all of them.

Well, yes they would. Infinity is infinite, it goes on forever. As long as the odds of random letters coalescing into literature was more than zero, at some point the literature would have to be written.

In call bullshit on the infinite monkey theory.

Random characters will continue being random, I could make a program right not that went on an infinite loop with random letters, (which is what I'd expect of infinite monkeys) I don't care how long it was left running, it would never, ever, produce a duplicate of any significant literary work, let alone all of them.

Well, yes they would. Infinity is infinite, it goes on forever. As long as the odds of random letters coalescing into literature was more than zero, at some point the literature would have to be written.

No, it wouldn't. That would only work if you excluded the possibility of repetition, in which case, over the course of infinity, every possible combination of words, letters, whatever, would take place.

But that isn't the case, with nothing stopping the same random crap from being generated over and over again, you're just going to get random crap, over and over again.

No, you're right, there is nothing to stop random crap from being generated over & over again. But this does not change the fact that the odds of the random letters coincidently forming all literature is more than zero, & therefore under the circumstances it has to happen.

Just because it is possible, doesn't mean it has to happen. Yes, if you stuck infinite monkeys in front of infinite typewriters for an infinite amount of time, it is POSSIBLE that they would write everything ever previously written. But it is also POSSIBLE that they would not. If random means truly random then almost any outcome is possible (Of course, there wouldn't be any outcome because you can't stop at the end of infinity to view the results)
They could keep writing gibberish for eternity. Of course, at any point they could end up writing every possible combination.


One more thought which may just blow your friend's mind even more. It is in fact impossible to write every possible thing there is to write, as the number of possible texts is not a finite thing... You can always add one more character or one more word to the end of anything already written, forming a brand new text.

So even an infinite number of monkeys typing for an infinite amount of time, will, at any one point in time, have an infinute amount of text they were yet to write. (This is of course assuming you want the monkeys to write every possible text, and not every previously written work.

My head hurts.

 

[Insomniac55]

Necessary Snip

If it is possible the under these circumstances yes it does have to happen. Every possible outcome has to happen since the monkeys are typing for infinity.

Is it not possible that the monkeys could continuously hit the letter A and nothing else, for infinity? Of course it is. Rediculously slim odds, but there is nothing physically preventing it from happening. If this is true, it means it is possible that the monkeys won't end up writing all the literature in the world.

Also, I'm absolutely not sure of anything I've said.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

How so many developers give gamers the ability to create yet it always ends up the same way.

Flaming Dicks, and Remakes of levels from oldschool games.

 

[Vkmies]

Kubrick movies

 

[Russian_Assassin]

A sniper bullet.

 

[Dr. Wily III]

Why do get the biggest jerks, get the women I love?

 

[benylor]

Just because it is possible, doesn't mean it has to happen. Yes, if you stuck infinite monkeys in front of infinite typewriters for an infinite amount of time, it is POSSIBLE that they would write everything ever previously written. But it is also POSSIBLE that they would not. If random means truly random then almost any outcome is possible (Of course, there wouldn't be any outcome because you can't stop at the end of infinity to view the results)
They could keep writing gibberish for eternity. Of course, at any point they could end up writing every possible combination.


One more thought which may just blow your friend's mind even more. It is in fact impossible to write every possible thing there is to write, as the number of possible texts is not a finite thing... You can always add one more character or one more word to the end of anything already written, forming a brand new text.

So even an infinite number of monkeys typing for an infinite amount of time, will, at any one point in time, have an infinute amount of text they were yet to write. (This is of course assuming you want the monkeys to write every possible text, and not every previously written work.

My head hurts.

Objection.

You do not understand what infinity is. This is no criticism, as neither do I. It's actually a relatively non-intuitive term. The misconception that you have made is that infinity is finite. You said "the end of infinity". There is no such thing.

In fact, you only need one or the other - infinite time OR infinite monkeys. Either one would be enough to guarantee Shakespeare - because there would be a set S defined as {M : M writes Shakespeare immediately upon coming across the timewriter}. Don't concern yourself that it's very unlikely - just the fact that it's physically possible is enough to guarantee that it will happen, an infinite amount of times! (Of course, it will be a miniscule fraction of the infinite amount of monkeys you have. That's another funny thing about infinity, you can have two infinite numbers that are different. Try looking at the limit of n/(n^2) compared to (n^2)/n if you don't believe me.)

But then you went and demonstrated that you do seem to understand infinity. It is impossible to write everything that you could write, because the limit of the length of each work is unbounded. You can indeed always +1 to the number of letters. That's correct. On the other hand... The monkeys will definitely reproduce everything that has ever been written up til this point (using the same alphabet as the typewriter, of course). And they'll reproduce an infinite amount of copies of it too.

This leads to another problem, though. The moment you set your infinite monkeys off, you'll have an infinite amount of works coming back at you. The fraction of them which are even legible, let alone Shakespeare, would be beyond tiny. Actually finding the Shakespeare is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of star, in a field the size of Wales full of haystacks the size of stars, on a farm with... um... a lot of fields. Possibly even less easy than that. I'm not sure, I haven't done the calculations

 

[Unidding]

Just because it is possible, doesn't mean it has to happen. Yes, if you stuck infinite monkeys in front of infinite typewriters for an infinite amount of time, it is POSSIBLE that they would write everything ever previously written. But it is also POSSIBLE that they would not. If random means truly random then almost any outcome is possible (Of course, there wouldn't be any outcome because you can't stop at the end of infinity to view the results)
They could keep writing gibberish for eternity. Of course, at any point they could end up writing every possible combination.


One more thought which may just blow your friend's mind even more. It is in fact impossible to write every possible thing there is to write, as the number of possible texts is not a finite thing... You can always add one more character or one more word to the end of anything already written, forming a brand new text.

So even an infinite number of monkeys typing for an infinite amount of time, will, at any one point in time, have an infinute amount of text they were yet to write. (This is of course assuming you want the monkeys to write every possible text, and not every previously written work.

My head hurts.

Objection.

You do not understand what infinity is. This is no criticism, as neither do I. It's actually a relatively non-intuitive term. The misconception that you have made is that infinity is finite. You said "the end of infinity". There is no such thing.

In fact, you only need one or the other - infinite time OR infinite monkeys. Either one would be enough to guarantee Shakespeare - because there would be a set S defined as {M : M writes Shakespeare immediately upon coming across the timewriter}. Don't concern yourself that it's very unlikely - just the fact that it's physically possible is enough to guarantee that it will happen, an infinite amount of times! (Of course, it will be a miniscule fraction of the infinite amount of monkeys you have. That's another funny thing about infinity, you can have two infinite numbers that are different. Try looking at the limit of n/(n^2) compared to (n^2)/n if you don't believe me.)

But then you went and demonstrated that you do seem to understand infinity. It is impossible to write everything that you could write, because the limit of the length of each work is unbounded. You can indeed always +1 to the number of letters. That's correct. On the other hand... The monkeys will definitely reproduce everything that has ever been written up til this point (using the same alphabet as the typewriter, of course). And they'll reproduce an infinite amount of copies of it too.

This leads to another problem, though. The moment you set your infinite monkeys off, you'll have an infinite amount of works coming back at you. The fraction of them which are even legible, let alone Shakespeare, would be beyond tiny. Actually finding the Shakespeare is like finding a needle in a haystack the size of star, in a field the size of Wales full of haystacks the size of stars, on a farm with... um... a lot of fields. Possibly even less easy than that. I'm not sure, I haven't done the calculations

I think this is the most understandable explanation so far so lets just leave the poor monekeys alone now.

also this is the correct explanation.