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peachboy

A colorful abacus that displays everything

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bars.jpeg

 

The above image is 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels high and made from a 16-bit palette that has the potential to display 16 million colors. One way to think about this image, is the image itself, but another way to think about this image is in terms of a very specialised abacus displaying a particular number.

As an abacus, we can think of each pixel representing a single digit within a finite range that spans from 0 all the way through to its most maximum displayable number within the conditions. As the abacus is 1280 pixels wide and 720 pixels high, the total number of digits belonging to the abacus is 921,600.

The arrangement of these 921,600 digits into a 1280x720 matrix is both for the purposes of aesthetics and practicality, for to display such a large number of digits as a linear horizontal would be too impractical.

Nonetheless the mechanics of the abacus function just like any other abacus, with only superficial considerations.

For our purposes, we shall consider the pixel at the bottom-right of the image to be the units column. If this was a base 10 (decimalised) abacus, then the the pixel to the immediate left of the units column would be the 10s column, with the 100s column to the left of that, and so forth. At the point at which we run out of pixels on that particular row, we simply move up to the row above starting once again from the pixels on the far-right of that new row. 

This is repeated all the way up, until we reach the pixel at the very top-left of the image that denotes the end of our finite span. If this was a base 10 abacus, then you can imagine a 921,600 digit number with each digit represented by the number 9 that in itself would represent the highest possible number displayable.

However, given that we're using colored pixels rather than unique numerical symbols, our abacus is actually a base 16 million abacus rather than a base 10 abacus.

What that means, is that starting from beginning the units column cycles through 16 million unique colors that can be attributed to the pixel, before moving onto the pixel to the immediate left and repeating.

We can imagine that the number 0 is represented by a perfectly black pixel, and the number 16 million is represented by a perfectly white pixel.

black.jpg

When the abacus is displaying 0, the 1280x720 image is a perfectly black rectangle, and when the abacus is displaying the highest number possible then it is represented by a perfectly white rectangle.

Now all we have to do is "count" from 0 all the way up to the highest number possible and "watch" the results.

Within the finite resolution of 1280x720 using base 16-million, we will inevitably experience every image that could ever possibly exist.

All of your family photos, every frame from every movie, every page from every book, every single moment from your life from all possible angles, would be displayed as the abacus cycled through every permutation all the way up to the highest number possible.

It would literally display everything. If you can imagine an image, then it would be there. if you can go out into the world with a digital camera that was set to a resolution of 1280x720 with 16-bit color system, any possible photo you could take would ultimately be displayed as we count all the way up.

It would literally display everything. Every single moment of your entire life, but this time where you're wearing a blue hat and Harrison Ford and the Queen of England is standing in the background.

If you can imagine it, it's there. 

And if you understand that, then imagine what is possible when the finite restrictions are lifted and the abacus becomes infinite.

And that's reality.

fractal.jpeg

ship.jpeg6965.jpg

 

 

Edited by peachboy

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