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Richard Walker

Don't Run This At Home

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Inspired by the excellent Numberphile's YouTube video Illegal Numbers, here is an algorithm that at some point arguably infringes every copyright that has been, is, and ever can be.

set n to 0

repeat forever 

    output n

    increase n by 1

Since any text can be represented in numerical form, this algorithm must eventually output the numerical equivalent of every piece of text that isn’t infinitely long.





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