A while back I got into a discussion about how many possible photographs there are. This is obviously a completely absurd question to ask, and the answer is that there are an infinite number. So lets turn the problem into something more tractable:
How many 50x50 pixel greyscale images (counting 256 different shades of grey) could possibly exist?
The answer is easily computable and is 256^(50*50), or about 10^6020, or more precisely (clicky for big number). This is an absolutely overwhelming number and we can't really do anything interesting with it.
How about, though, if we imagine a camera with only two colours: black and white. Furthermore this crap camera (or CrapCamTM) can only take pictures of size 5*4 pixels. How many possible images could it capture? Once again this isn't hard to calculate and the answer is 2^(5*4), or 1048576.
Well, what with me having far too much spare time, I went out and took every single possible photograph from our CrapCamTM, and then mirror imaged them so they look like space invaders. Here are one million space invaders (beware, web browser destroying 6.8Mb png lies beyond that link), here is a tiny fraction of that image:
No repeats, nothing missing, this is every image that could possibly be taken from our hypothetical camera.
It's interesting to think that with a well written computer program and an infinite amount of time we could generate every possible image. Including an image of me fighting a grizzly bear, but the bear has a toaster for a head, and I am only three inches high. Also I have an afro.
The infinite photograph project would be worth the infinite amount of computer time it requires for that picture alone.
How many 50x50 pixel greyscale images (counting 256 different shades of grey) could possibly exist?
The answer is easily computable and is 256^(50*50), or about 10^6020, or more precisely (clicky for big number). This is an absolutely overwhelming number and we can't really do anything interesting with it.
How about, though, if we imagine a camera with only two colours: black and white. Furthermore this crap camera (or CrapCamTM) can only take pictures of size 5*4 pixels. How many possible images could it capture? Once again this isn't hard to calculate and the answer is 2^(5*4), or 1048576.
Well, what with me having far too much spare time, I went out and took every single possible photograph from our CrapCamTM, and then mirror imaged them so they look like space invaders. Here are one million space invaders (beware, web browser destroying 6.8Mb png lies beyond that link), here is a tiny fraction of that image:
No repeats, nothing missing, this is every image that could possibly be taken from our hypothetical camera.
It's interesting to think that with a well written computer program and an infinite amount of time we could generate every possible image. Including an image of me fighting a grizzly bear, but the bear has a toaster for a head, and I am only three inches high. Also I have an afro.
The infinite photograph project would be worth the infinite amount of computer time it requires for that picture alone.
