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25 July 2006

It occured to me today that Deep Thought lied about the answer to "life, the Universe, everything".→[More:] When it starts solving the problem, Deep Thought states that it will take seven and a half million years to solve it. After seven and a half million years of computing, DT gives an answer (Forty Two) to the question and states that it's the correct one.

The problem is, however, that it's not possible to know for sure how long a program will run or if it will ever halt without running it. Therefore, Deep Thought lied about the time it would take to run the program and either hadn't finished the calculation when seven and a half million years had passed, or just made the number up -- but in that case, it could just as well have made up the "answer". In either case, we cannot decide whether the answer is correct or not. Not that it matters anyway...

post by: Daniel Charms at: 12:26 | 19 comments

Good catch.

A long time ago, I decided that Deep Thought had encoded the problem into hex. 2B in hex is 43 in decimal notation. 2B or not 2B? The answer is clearly not 2B (but not NOT 2B, as in the logical operation).

posted by Eideteker 25 July | 12:33

If you're wondering about the halting problem
And other science facts
Repeat to yourself "It's just a book,
I should really just relax."

posted by Wolfdog 25 July | 12:36

or, more simple, "don't panic"

posted by terrapin 25 July | 12:38

When I read the books, my immediate interpretation was this.

42 is the number you get when you add up all the pips on a pair of dice.

In other words, the answer to life, the universe, and everythng is - it's all chance.

posted by Miko 25 July | 12:40

errrrr, simply.

and I like Miko's theory.

posted by terrapin 25 July | 12:41

Actually, the answer isn't 42, it's 37.

And that's why it's called a Scifi satire. The same thing applies to webcomic Starslip Crisis, which is based on the premise of a rather absurd mode of intergallactic travel, and yet people on the comic's forum debate its feasability. IT'S COMEDY, PEOPLE. IT DOESN'T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE. Comedy that does make sense is a rare and special commodity, and virtually impossible to achieve in Scifi Satire. I know. I tried it when I was much younger, and still wear the psychic scars.

/rant

posted by wendell 25 July | 12:54

Isn't there a third possiblility - namely that he finished well within the seven and a half million years, and spent the rest ogling the hot Girl Computer down at the Computer Beach?

posted by muddgirl 25 July | 13:14

Jack Handey would never lie to me.

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 25 July | 13:14

miko that's very cool.

posted by richat 25 July | 13:14

Actually the question is "What was a number frequently used for addresses, ages, and other random innumerated things on The Burkiss Way, a radio program that Adams wrote a few sketches for?"

/geek

posted by PinkStainlessTail 25 July | 13:26

Shit, that should be enumerated, shouldn't it?

posted by PinkStainlessTail 25 July | 13:29

I'm all for pedantry, but I'm afraid you're barking up the wrong tree on this one. The halting problem says you can't say how long a program will run or whether it will halt in the general case. In specific cases there's no such limitation however, so Deep Thought might well have been able to compute the time necessary.

posted by fvw 25 July | 13:34

Yeah. So there.

posted by Specklet 25 July | 13:51

Since a computer program is really just an integer, there isn't function to look at an integer and decide if it is a buggy program or not. The long binary integer that is a program without an endless loop in it is a "computable" number.

Hint: think Cantor diagonal and how Godel used it. Turing did the same thing without knowing about Godel.

Computable numbers are a countable infinite set and Non-computable numbers are not countable. QED MOFO

Ha, ha, ha. All you programmers are doing is trying to write down a single number and not screw it up.

posted by warbaby 25 July | 13:53

Deep Throat?

posted by Hugh Janus 25 July | 14:04

fvw is right. The halting problem is only a problem in the infinite case. Deep thought, though very large and complex, was finite.

Take the simple example of counting the percentage of blue gumballs in a dispenser of red and blue gumballs. If we know the number of marbles. And we know it takes 15 seconds to dispense a single gumball. We can know how long it will take to determine the percentage even though we don't yet know the percentage.

And second wendell.

posted by Mitheral 25 July | 15:29

And second wendell.
Sorry, there's only one of me. All cloning attempts were unsuccessful. When they made me, they broke the mold... actually, they broke the mold WHILE they were making me, which explains a lot.

posted by wendell 25 July | 15:45

You know Wolfdog is a true nerd when he participates in a HHGTTG thread with an MST3K reference.

and you know I'm a nerd because I giggled like a schoolgirl when I read that

posted by SassHat 25 July | 18:05

Wolfdog, wendell: Yeah, I know :7

fvw, Mitheral: I knew I was missing something. Thanks.

posted by Daniel Charms 26 July | 02:08

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