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Re: Billion versus Trillion

Posted by Mark H. on February 8, 2005, at 19:38:42

In reply to Picture a beebee in a boxcar..., posted by 64bowtie on February 4, 2005, at 9:47:29

Hi Rod,

I think you've lost a few beebees....

10,000 x 160,000 = 1,600,000,000 (one billion six hundred million).

However, you write that "my 10,000 nuggets of information that are my knowledge base takes up about as much space in the universe of knowledge as what space a beebee takes up in a standard 40 foot railroad boxcar."

So you're saying 10,000 nuggets = 1 beebee, not 10,000 nuggets = 10,000 beebees.

Then you write, "Since we can put about 1.6 trillion beebees in a standard railroad boxcar [I'll take your word for this], there are 160,000 completely different knowledge bases available, each having about 10,000 uniquely separate nuggets of useful info."

But if your first paragraph is correct, then there would be 1,600,000,000,000 "completely different knowledge bases available."

However, what if 99.9% (or greater) of your 10,000 nuggets were actually just like everyone else's?

You write, "I'm searching for that boundary between sensible and foolish." I wonder if attempting to quantify the universe of knowledge by analogy falls into the latter category.

However, don't give up the search....

Best wishes,

Mark H.


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poster:Mark H. thread:453054
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050205/msgs/455158.html