On possibility
Pixel art possibilities > number of atoms in the observable universe?? Plus, a book about bikes, a hammock-type bike seat, and squirt boating.
How is it that a 10×14 pixel grid can have more possible combinations of pixels (even in just black and white, that’s two to the power of one hundred and forty) than atoms in the observable universe?
I might need some help/being corrected on this one. It’s just so confusing and compelling that a simple little grid could produce more combinations than could ever be represented because, well, you’d need way more atoms than total pixels to represent all the combinations.
Disclaimer: I haven’t fully understood the math on this probably. If you understand it, please help me out here.
11/24/24 UPDATE: Yes, I did do the math wrong! Apparently you would need a grid of a grand… drum roll… 16 by 16 pixels (a whole six extra rows and two extra columns), where all of the pixels can be either black or white, and one out of all those pixels can be black, white, or green.
That would do it. To allow for more possibilities than the atoms in the observable universe.
That looks like this, where each box is filled with either white, black, or, for the last box, black, white, or green:
Which means… that you could print and stack the possibilities on paper, all of the random pixel creatures and every iteration of every Mario character, every letter of every alphabet, every character, and every pixelated random nonsense and the stack of paper would not only go way farther than the moon, there would be more than one page for every atom in the universe… which is totally IMPOSSIBLE because there wouldn’t be enough atoms, let around paper, to go around! What??!
Did I do the math right here? Can someone please correct me and tell me I’m entirely wrong about this, or any of this?
To twist it in a new age-y kind of way into a life lesson: it seems like this might be a gentle reminder to get over our FOMO.
There will always be way more things you could be doing than you can possibly do. Just look at the variations in how you can make pixel art.
Instead of wasting all your time on dwelling over all the iterations and contortions of what should or could be*, try JOMO, the joy of missing out, by actually picking something (or letting it pick you**) and enjoying it. And it’ll waste way less atoms.
** “I would say that I didn’t pick the guitar, the guitar picked me.” -Naeim Rahmani (also, did Jimi Hendrix or another musician say something like this too? I can’t find a source.)
*Although, sometimes variations are worth it, as with Glenn Gould playing Bach’s Goldberg variations.
It would be kind of fun to see pixel art for more of the amazing animals alive on the planet. There’s a ceramic artist doing this for little hexagonal plates but I forgot her name. So far as I know, no one has created plates or pixel art for colugos (“flying lemurs” — not actually lemurs) or diplurans.
Oh, lastly, isn’t this newsletter supposed to be about books, bikes, and boats? Oops!
The friendly librarians put this awesome book about bikes out on display along with lots of other awesome books and I couldn’t put it down for quite some time. Here’s a picture of the cover:
Inside, I learned about an historical bike that basically has a hammock for a seat. It’s literally suspended from the frame, which extends upwards in a way I’ve never seen before.
Check it out:
Some more hammocks:
And boats… if you like kayaking, and ducks, and the idea of transforming a kayaker into a duck, you’ve got to check out squirt boating. Imagine a kayaker who can suddenly slip beneath the water, kayak and all, and swim around with goggles, looking at the underwater world around them. Here’s an article about squirt boating.
Sources/links/reference:
How many atoms are in the observable universe?
My scratch work on Desmos graphing calculator
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-3746-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/6aff9166-cef2-e684-e040-e00a18060c9f
Mystery moves and the art-of-the-get-down! Thanks for sharing the bit on squirt boating. I was daydreaming about my local spot and decided to google where I came across your reference to the 2020 article. If you want to know more about the boats go to Murky Waters Kayak (https://murkywaterkayak.com/). He is not the only mystery machine maker, but the easiest to get ahold of in North America. If you are ever in East Tennessee/Western North Carolina and want to learn more, look me up. A fun video that matches the article can be seen here: https://youtu.be/XkHRBO3UTas?si=rr0dlwCf4yowGDiw
Grid pattern broke into macular degeneration spider implosions . One more amorphous entity unseen. The kayak reference I will check out. Hammock should come provided to net fish. The updated post keeps me up at night. Good show.