> All of GIMPS is searching the range from about 2^(2^20) to about
> 2^(2^24.3). It is easy to lose a sense of the enormity of these numbers
> when we toss them around like this, or see our sometimes outdated
> computers grinding away on them. The number your computer is
> currently working on is big, my friends. Blake, thanks for catching
> the error! {8-] regards, spike
I actually found all of this interesting. It's been a while since I've
tried to conceptualize large numbers, and just how large they really are.
We all being mathematically minded can appreciate such things.
Last time I did something similar was my ongoing "crusade" to show just how
impossible it would be for "life" to be "accidentally" caused. You'd have a
better chance of randomly picking a single Mersenne number in the
2^(10^100)-1 (wild "butt" guess) range and having it be prime. I'm sure
we've all heard about some "amoeba" type thing moving the entire universe,
atom by atom, one angstrom every 15 billion years, over a distance of one
universe (about 30 billion light years) and then back for the next atom at
the same speed, and in that time you'd still not be likely to arrange even
so much as a protein by "chance" (not really chance since chance is a
statistical measure, not a causative force). It's an illustration by James
Coppedge that basically expands on the "million monkeys typing Shakespeare"
mental picture.
And that's just to arrange a single protein molucule. Rough estimates give
a 1 in 10^161 chance of arranging a single protein by accident, and a 1 in
10^119879 chance of "accidentally" arranging the *simplest* self-replicating
cell (life)...if anyone wants to go further with that... :-) Point
being...10^161 is a VERY large number, and so is 2^3021377-1!!
Why anyone who comprehends how big these oddsa are can believe that life
began that way is amazing. I'd sooner believe in "directed panspermia", but
that's something for talk.origins. :-)
By the way, totally changing the subject, going back to my idea of some
other prize we could offer besides the one for finding the next Mersenne
Prime...anyone come up with anything? If not, I suppose I could just donate
to that prize pool.
Aaron
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