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[Music]
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how many images can possibly
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exist how many kinds of images are
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there how many depict real
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events what lies in the space between
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Order and Chaos
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pixels are the building blocks of
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digital images tiny tiles forming a
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mosaic each pixel is defined by numbers
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representing color and position
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therefore any Digital Image can be
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represented as a sequence of
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numbers every possible combination of
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these numbers maps to exactly one unique
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image and every possible image maps to
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exactly one unique combination of
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numbers just as we don't need to write
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down every number between 0 and 1 to
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prove they exist we don't need to
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generate every possible image to prove
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they
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exist their existence is guaranteed by
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the mathematics that defines
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them they exist as points in an abstract
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coordinate
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space therefore every photograph that
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could ever be taken exists as
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coordinates every frame of every
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possible film exists as
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coordinates every face that could ever
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be
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seen exist as coordinates
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to deny this would be to deny the
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existence of numbers
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themselves so how many images can
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possibly exist we simply take the number
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of colors to the power of the number of
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pixels 24-bit RGB color depth gives us
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16,777,216
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possible colors per
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pixel a pixel resolution of 1,24 squar
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gives us just over a million pixels per
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image if we take the number of colors to
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the power of the number of pixels we get
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an incomprehensibly large but finite
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number of images that's a seven followed
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by over 7.5 million digits more than a
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Google but less than a Google
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plx the estimated number of atoms in the
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entire universe is only 10 to 80th power
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when we take photos perhaps we are not
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creating
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images we are merely navigating to their
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predetermined coordinates like Travelers
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arriving at destinations that were
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always
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[Music]
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there total pixel space contains every
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possible Digital Image including films
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of your entire
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life every life you never lived and the
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lives of every other living creature cre
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or object that ever and never existed on
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or off the Earth from every possible
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angle it contains countless films
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depicting the complete history of
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humanity from the dawn to the demise of
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homo
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sapiens it contains intimate portraits
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of every human who ever
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[Laughter]
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lived it contains a million year long
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film documenting the rise and fall of a
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true alien
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civilization it contains images of every
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weather pattern and
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Cloud photos of every mountain rock and
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microscopic grain of dust on Earth and
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every other planet asteroid and moon in
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the universe in every wavelength of
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light from every
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angle it contains the life stories of
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every microorganism that ever lived
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every video game run
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through images of all future scientific
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discoveries and
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inventions images that defy the laws of
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physics and
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[Music]
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logic images of every dream of everyone
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who ever
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lived somewhere in this vastness are
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images of the moment of our
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deaths somewhere in this vastness lies
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every frame of every possible past
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present and
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future but within this ocean of pixel
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possibility natural images are but a
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drop recognizable scenes faces and
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objects are extremely rare Islands in a
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vast sea of noise the laws of physics of
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light and matter carve narrow channels
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through the mathematical void our world
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flows through these channels leaving
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most of pixel space forever
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unknowable yet this space teams with
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potential every form of life that could
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exist every
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absurdity all float in this vast
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sea most regions appear as noise to our
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eyes but perhaps they hold patterns our
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brains aren't wired to
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see like the rules of Chess to a Cricut
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these structures might require new forms
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of perception knowledge and Technology
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to
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decipher perhaps Chaos and Order depend
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on one another to
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exist through contrast the
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meaninglessness frames the
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meaningful in physics time is often
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thought of as a fourth dimension and
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additional axis alongside the three
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dimensions of space allowing for a
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seamless and continuous unfolding of
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events yet in total pixel space time
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becomes more like a set of ordered
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images each image or frame is static and
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Timeless nothing within any one frame
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changes it is frozen fully defined in
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every pixel
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waiting in this sense time is an
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illusion of change created by the
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conscious movement from one frame to the
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next so how many films can possibly
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exist we simply take the number of
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possible images to the power of the
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number of
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frames recall that total pixel space
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contains this number of possible images
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this is the number of possible images
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for just one frame in a
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film if our film has a frame rate of 24
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frames per second we get this many
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possible 1second
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films a 2hour film contains
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172,00
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frames and so here is the number of
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every possible 2-hour film a nine
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followed by 1.3 trillion
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[Music]
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digits the mathematics of total pixel
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space reveals time not as a flowing
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river beyond our control but as a vast
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collection of static moments each
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existing simultaneously as
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coordinates what we perceive as the
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forward March of time May Simply Be
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Consciousness traversing these
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predetermined points like a beam of
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light Illuminating one frame after
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another in an endless film Real that
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already exists in its
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entirety total pixel space represents
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both the ultimate determinism and the
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ultimate Freedom every possibility
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existing
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simultaneously waiting for Consciousness
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to give it meaning through the act of
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choice we are all Navigators in this
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space each choice a coordinate each
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moment a point in the mathematical
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Sublime within this space Evolution
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itself becomes not a process of creation
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but of Discovery each possible path of
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life's development already
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mapped our particular evolutionary story
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from the first self-replicating
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molecules to conscious beings
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contemplating their own existence is but
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one thread in a colossal tapestry of
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possibility
