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Re:Ask YC: Six year old proposes new number by dhotson on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @12:45AM (#219435)
This reminds me of a question that a university lecturer of mine asked.. "Tell me the biggest number you can think of"

Just try it. :)

It's actually not that easy, since there are always more numbers that are bigger. The challenge is around describing these large numbers using the minimum amount of information possible.

He went on to talk about the 'Busy Beaver' problem which is all about turing machines and all kinds of interesting stuff.

Has anyone here studied Busy Beavers before?

Re:Ask YC: Six year old proposes new number by rw on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @05:05AM (#219589)
Yes. Scott Aaronson has some good writing on those.