Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> With so many emitting bodies in the universe, wouldn't we expect to receive the complete works of shakespeare from ~1 remote body/month?

Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Matter_con...) says we have around 10^80 hydrogen atoms in the observable universe. That's a huge number, but there are 10^80 different decimal numbers with 80 digits alone. Shakespeare's works are considerably longer.



Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe.

Secondly what the above comment means is that with so many bodies emitting some thing random for such a long period of time. You are inevitable bound to notice something that you could make some meaning of.

And yes the 'WOW' signal is present some where in Pi.


> Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe.

We don't know anything about the unobservable universe. And who cares in this context? johnvschmitt was explicitely talking about 'receiving'.


Something you make meaning of yes, probably. The complete works of Shakespeare, no, probably not.

And no, that's not necessarily true with regards to Pi.


Depends on whether Pi is a normal-enough number. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: