[ExI] very asian gold box?

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
Sent: Saturday, 28 December, 2024 8:42 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: Stuart LaForge <avant at sollegro.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] very asian gold box?

On 2024-12-28 13:32, spike jones via extropy-chat wrote:
> There are many fans of Hofstader's Eternal Golden Braid here as I 
> recall.  I noted to a young friend that it is the most letter-perfect 
> book I have ever read, as I don't recall seeing a single typo in it.
> He found two, and I found a third, right together on page 404:
> 
> Tortoise: Now whatver has come over you, Achilles?  Well, thank you 
> for your outstandig generosity, and I hope you have sweet dreams about 
> the strange Golbach Conjecture, and its Variation.  Good night.
> 
> The same sentence has omitted three letters, the e in whatever, the n 
> in outstanding, and the d in Goldbach.  It is on page 404.  So e, n, d 
> are missing, all in the same sentence.  Are there any computer jockeys 
> here who can suggest reasons why Hofstadter would have omitted e, n, 
> d?

Could it be a pun of omission? E, n, d spell "end" and that sentence is
therefore "endless" which is a synonym for eternal as in "Eternal Golden
Braid".

> Please also, what is the Variation of Goldbach's conjecture?

There are a lot of variations of the Goldbach Conjecture that are possible
and therefore, I do not know which in particular Hofstader was referring to.
One variation that I myself came up with is that every integer greater than
3 is the arithmetic mean of or, exactly halfway in between, at least one
pair of prime numbers.

Stuart LaForge
_______________________________________________



Ja, from what I can tell, the Goldbach Variation is that any even number can
be expressed as the difference of two primes.  Oh how cool is that?

I also concluded it was a pun of omission.  The letters e, n, d were in a
vertical line, with the middle line having an anomalously long space before
the word outstandig.  

Stuart I think you are right on that end-less notion.

Oh that Hofstadter is a clever chap.  I want to be like him when I grow up.

spike