h a l f b a k e r yAsk your doctor if the Halfbakery is right for you.
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Waiting For God Knows is a large hour glass which is
attached to an auto inverting apparatus. The hour glass
has two positions: 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. The auto
inverter turns the hour glass over from 12 to 6 causing the
sand to run from the upper container to the lower one.
The complete
difference between this device and every
other hour glass, is the auto inverter, which has a totally
random setting.
When the randomiser is activated, Waiting For God Knows
may sit for days doing nothing then the auto inverter
decides to turn over the hour glass and begin the timing
process as the sand runs from the upper to the lower
container.
This may run its course, but it's equally possible that it
may flick the process into reverse for a minute or two, or
ten minutes or for a few seconds.
Nothing may happen for a few hours or for days before
more sporadic activity resumes, as everything about
waiting for God Knows is about waiting for God knows.
[link]
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"Computer, is there a God ? " |
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"Yes, now there is a God." |
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//a totally random setting// I see the problem here. If the
timer is totally random, then it will produce any number
between zero and infinity. On average, therefore, it will
produce about half infinity, which is still infinity. |
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In fact, on its very first activation, the probability that it will
produce a number less than the time needed to completely
drain the [finite amount of] sand is literally infinitesimal. So,
your egg timer will just sit there, long after the first load of
sand has completed its fall from top to bottom. |
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The only way you'll know or not know is to wait
and see -
waiting and watching for God knows. When it's
built I'll invite you to come and spend time proving
or not proving your theory through empirical
observation. |
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Max - you'll also note that there are a few
elements at work here: resting time - as the sand
descends; and a sort of binary time - when the
position is either at the 6, or 12 position. Then
there is the interval time between the hour glass
moving or remaining static. If an infinite series like
the digits of pi was built into the controller then
the odd numbers could be allocated to one state,
and the even numbers to another state. Perhaps pi
does not contain a random sequence of digits? My
logic is to base a binary status on a random
deciding mechanism, but with the inclusion of
interval timing. |
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//Perhaps pi does not contain a random sequence of digits?//
By definition, pi is not a random sequence of digits. Separately, it may or may not have a random distribution of digits. |
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For an infinite time stoppage it would have an infinitely unlikely probability. Although, [xenzag] could put normal hour glass that has run out in front of us and we wouldn't know. The period of change and probability for it , could be longer than a lifetime. Maybe drive it by some random traveling universal particles. |
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God usually returns you if the period is too short to transition that no return event horizon. |
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The nice thing about this is that you wouldn't
actually have to motorize it at all. |
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