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Posted by tromp 4 hours ago

The largest number representable in 64 bits(tromp.github.io)
51 points | 39 commentspage 2
IshKebab 3 hours ago|
Once you allow any format the question is completely meaningless. You can just define 0 to mean any number you want.
tromp 3 hours ago|
The post addresses this very issue:

> Precisely because the Turing machine model is so ancient and fixed, whatever emergent behavior we find in the Busy Beaver game, there can be no suspicion that we “cheated” by changing the model until we got the results we wanted.”

Sharlin 3 hours ago||
(Edit: oops, incorrect numbers)
tromp 3 hours ago|
Following BLC8's bytewise encoding convention of [1], w218's binary encoding 0100 0101 1010 1000 0110 0110 0000 0001 0101 1011 1011 0000 0011 1001 1101 0 gets padded with 3 arbitrary least significant bits, say 000, and becomes 45A8_6601_5BB0_39C0 in hexadecimal.

[1] https://www.ioccc.org/2012/tromp/

dorianmariecom 1 hour ago||
wow that entry to the international obfuscated c code contest
masfuerte 3 hours ago||
> The largest number (currently known to be) representable in 64 bits is w218

In my representation the bit pattern 00000000_00000000_00000000_00000000_00000000_00000000_00000000_00000001 stands for the number w218+1.

I win!

tromp 3 hours ago|
> Precisely because the Turing machine model is so ancient and fixed, whatever emergent behavior we find in the Busy Beaver game, there can be no suspicion that we “cheated” by changing the model until we got the results we wanted.

Sorry; no winning for cheaters:-(

o_nate 2 hours ago|
Whatever largest number you can express in your system, I can represent a larger one in only one bit, using the following specification.

0=your largest number 1=your largest number + 1

Veserv 2 hours ago||
To be pedantic, that is a instance of the Berry paradox [1] and no you can not [2] as that would be a violation of Godel's incompleteness theorems.

edit: To clarify further, you could create a new formal language L+ that axiomatically defines 0 as "largest number according to L", but that would no longer be L, it would be L+. For any given language with rules at this level of power you could not make that statement without creating a new language with even more powerful rules i.e. each specific set of rules is capped, you need to add more rules to increase that cap, but that is a different language.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berry_paradox

[2] https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/the-no-self-defeat...

o_nate 2 hours ago|||
It's not a paradox, because there is nothing logically inconsistent in my definition, unlike the Berry paradox.
thewakalix 2 hours ago||||
To be more pedantic, yes you can, but only with a meta-language.