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A comment on Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them. Parent comment

Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by TeMPOraL on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @02:28PM (#42784256)
> Belphegor (or Baal Peor, Hebrew: בַּעַל-פְּעוֹר baʿal-pəʿōr – “Lord of the Gap”) is, in the Abrahamic religions, a demon associated with one of the seven deadly sins. According to religious tradition, he helps people make discoveries. He seduces people by proposing incredible inventions that will make them rich.

Huh. Would feel right at home in our industry.

> According to some demonologists from the 17th century, his powers are strongest in April.

Any demo days or other significant VC stuff happening in April?

> The German bishop and witch hunter, Peter Binsfeld (ca. 1540–ca.1600) wrote that Belphegor tempts through laziness. According to Binsfeld's Classification of Demons, Belphegor is the main demon of the deadly sin known as sloth in the Christian tradition. The anonymous author of the Lollard tract The Lanterne of Light, however, believed Belphegor to embody the sin of gluttony rather than sloth.

Yeah, hits too close to home.

Via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor

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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by vdjskshi on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @04:16PM (#42785290)
Sounds like the patron saint of LLMs
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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by WorldMaker on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @03:32PM (#42784873)
> Any demo days or other significant VC stuff happening in April?

Lots of tech companies plan elaborate demos for April 1st, for some foolish reason. It certainly gets very busy on HN keeping up.

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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by miki123211 on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @04:19PM (#42785321)
How was this never mentioned in Unsong? Not a single time?
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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by TeMPOraL on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @04:27PM (#42785389)
IDK, I guess Scott Alexander didn't do his research thoroughly enough. Still, UNSONG is already pretty much a fractal of references and callouts to such things.

On that note, how is it I've never seen anyone connecting the famous "God of the gaps"[0] with a demon literally named "Lord of the Gap"?

(In case no one really did, let history and search engines mark this comment as the first.)

--

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by gpderetta on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @04:36PM (#42785463)
Makes sense, with laziness being one of the three virtues of a great programmer.
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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by irrational on Tuesday January 21, 2025 @07:06PM (#42786935)
Can’t spell “demon” without “demo”. Cue the church lady.
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Re:Prime Numbers Are So Memorable That People Hunt for Them by alphan0n on Wednesday January 22, 2025 @04:51PM (#42797907)
Startup > trapt (archaic) us
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