On: Man or boy test

[jdkee]

I am about a third of the way through Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming. It is an amazing piece of work created by one man. The sheer breadth and level of complexity in the work is awe inspiring. I wish my younger self had read a copy when learning 6502 assembly in the 80s simply to understand data (information) structures.

That said, this procedure is a doozy. It reminds me of the Ackermann function but doesn't quite grow as fast (understatement).

[lisper → jdkee]

If you like the Ackerman function you're gonna love Kruskal's tree theorem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kruskal%27s_tree_theorem

[gonehome → lisper]

This essay is also great if you like this kind of thing: https://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/bignumbers.html

[danbruc → gonehome]

Or this page [1] on large numbers.

[1] https://mrob.com/pub/math/largenum.html

[jdkee → lisper]

Or Friedman’s SSCG function.

[lisper → jdkee]

> "SSCG(3) is much, much larger than both TREE(3) and TREE^(TREE(3))(3) (the TREE function nested TREE(3) times with 3 at the bottom)"

Holy freakin' cow.

And the busy beaver sequence grows faster than that.

My mind is well and truly boggled.

[telesilla → jdkee]

I'm not strong on mathematics but I've been able to enjoy the historical overview and references. I agree with you on how amazing the work is.

[tempguy9999 → jdkee]

I've read the wiki page and still don't get what the big deal is about the ackermann function. Can someone explain? TIA