This is similar to the idea that an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters will eventually type all of Shakespeare's plays.
In theory, the number pi, because it "goes on" forever, contains all possible combinations of digits. So any string of numbers you can conceive of is in the digits of pi somewhere.
All information that can be represented digitally takes the form of ones and zeros, or binary. So if you convert pi to binary, then conceivably you are in the possession of all information. Including a lot of stuff that could get you into trouble.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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But having Pi in binary form contains no more or less information than having it in decimal form. The information is there whether you're calculating Pi graphically, in hexadecimal, or writing it in crayon.
Also, you're only in possession of all information if you manage to put all of Pi into some explicit form. As Pi is unending, that is impossible, without infinite time. Of course, the complete works of Shakespeare and the true account of the JFK assassination might just be contained in the first 10 billion digits of Pi, with the next 100 trillion digits providing only gibberish.
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