Pie in Heaven or Heaven in Pi?

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Pie in Heaven or Heaven in Pi?

Okay, this is the kind of thread that Pep usually starts, but...

I remember reading somewhere about how pi (the mathematical constant which describes the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter) appears to be an infinitely complex (or almost infinitely complex) number, i.e. it contains apparently random strings of digits stretching off forever, with no discernable pattern or bias towards particular numbers.
Since we can encode data numerically, this means that pi can in fact be viewed as a real world version of the infinite number of monkeys typing forever on an infinite number of typewriters - ie every work of literature past, present and future is encoded somewhere within pi, as are an infinite number of slight variations on every single work, with a letter changed here or there, or with different endings, or whatever. Every song in the world that ever has been or ever will be is encoded within pi. By extension, within pi is an incredibly long, incredibly complex string of data which describes you, molecule by molecule, and contains the data for your whole life, and for everyone else's - past, present, and future, real and imagined. Somewhere, forever, in pi, you are saying a last goodbye to a loved one, having your first kiss, eating a sandwich, and breathing your last.
To some philosophers, pi represents a kind of eternal life - a mathematical proof of Heaven, if you will, which theoretically exists, encoded within pi. If one day humankind created a computer powerful enough to create simulations of worlds, then the data within pi could be used to recreate your life all over again. In fact, who's to say that isn't what's happening now?

Pi for thought, anyway...

Pi me all they want...as long as they encode some sex and ganga into the ingredients then I'll eat it. There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed - Dennett

There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed -
Dennett

Brilliant concept Rokki. But, in fact, we don't need an infinite array of ever changing numbers to do all those things. It turns out that you, me, the universe, the works of Shakespeare and pepsoid, everything that ever has been or ever will be are all reducible to just two numbers - zero and one. Since 'zero' is like a circle and 'one' - as a straight line - is like a radius or diameter, we come full circle back to your original point.
I think there may be some proof that proves it isn't so, but perhaps the infinite recursion of pi is only because of the numerical system we represent it in (I know there's some proof that it cannot be represented as a fraction of two whole numbers). For instance, 0.1 cannot be represented in powers of two and becomes infinitely recurring in binary, ableit with a pattern. Pi is only the ration of circumfrence to diameter of a circle on a flat surface, what if pi is only a factor of the curvature of space, maybe it isn't a constant and varies depending on your point in the universe. Pi is cool. e (Euler's number, not the drug) is pretty cool too.

 

I love this kind of stuff! The idea of giving a kind of “spiritual” significance to a number… brilliant! I wouldn’t say it’s proof of Heaven or God or whatever, but it’s certainly the kind of thinking which leads us closer to a conceptual consilience between spirituality and science. ( Re the aforementioned world-simulating computer… as Pi is by definition random, where would you start?... How far along the “chain” of Pi would you start measuring the data? ) ~PEPS~ You can’t finish a man till he’s finished his Texan Bar

The All New Pepsoid the Second!

"as Pi is by definition random" It most certainly is not!

 

Okay, seemingly random... (the sequence of numbers after the decimal point) ~PEPS~ You can’t finish a man till he’s finished his Texan Bar

The All New Pepsoid the Second!

Well, putting aside the various fallacies involved in this little thought-experiment (ignoring as it does the inherent limitations of any formal system as demonstrated in Godel's Theorem) it still suffers from a Borgesian infinite library syndrome - ie yes, somewhere within pi your life is encoded, but so are a (near?) infinite number of slightly incorrect duplicate versions - in fact, there are so much extraneous data that finding yourself amongst it all would be a nigh-impossible task. It wouldn't stop the information from existing - it would just necessitate the existence of a 'God' to locate and extract it.
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