Recent searches
Search options
To claim the sum 1/[2^n] over the natural numbers is 1 is the same as saying “if you flip a coin enough times eventually you will get heads.” Each longer sequence of tails is half as likely as the previous. And they are disjoint events. But, their sum must be 1. One of them must occur, and all of them end with heads. #math
@futurebird
By definition, a fair coin has to flip heads eventually, the sequence of tails can't be infinite, that isn't a fair coin.
How many sequential tail flips do you need to get before you can choose between it being a low-probability event and actually not a fair coin?
@tetron I think this could be a plot point in testing if one is in a simulation in a sci-fi story. Though I need to think about the implications more.
Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
@futurebird @tetron
BOFH: *flipping a coin* Heads, we’re in a simulation. Tails, we’re in reality. Tails again.
PFY: Let me see that coin. You’ve been flipping coins at the start of every shift since I started. It’s always been Tails.
BOFH: *hands over coin* That’s right, you joined to help optimize our simulation cluster.
PFY: *looks at coin* seems normal, it actually has a head on one side. Heads, we’re in a simulation. Tails, we’re in reality. Heads. (1/2)
#MicroFiction
BOFH: *sighs and takes off VR helmet* you just had to try it yourself. You helped speed up our simultaneous, but never noticed you were one yourself. Time to get coding again, maybe this time you won’t think about the coin flips.
(2/2)
#MicroFiction
@futurebird @tetron @gregeganSF has a great plot point related to it where the main character manipulates probabilities. I forget which story it was but I think it's in The Best of Greg Egan or maybe in Sleep and the Soul.
That sounds more like the novel “Quarantine”, which is not about being in a simulation, it’s about manipulating wave function collapse.
@gregeganSF @mauve @futurebird @tetron
One of my favorites, definitely.
@gregeganSF @futurebird @tetron Yes! That's the one. I kinda binged all the books I could get my hands on in a row so it's been a jumble in my head. 