A brave busy beaver confronts the dreaded Antihydra. Illustration by the super-talented Nico Roper. In the summer of 2024, I reported on an online community that nailed down the precise value of a number called BB(5) — the first big … Read more
Imagine that someone gives you a list of five numbers: 1, 6, 21, 107 and — wait for it — 47,176,870. Can you guess what comes next? If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. These are the first five busy beaver … Read more
Imagine that someone gives you a list of five numbers: 1, 6, 21, 107 and — wait for it — 47,176,870. Can you guess what comes next? If you’re stumped, you’re not alone. These are the first five busy beaver … Read more
🔒 Privacy First: Beaver Notes ensures your data stays private and secure. Your notes are stored locally on your device, eliminating any concerns about data breaches or unauthorized access. Enjoy peace of mind while capturing your thoughts. 🌳 Offline Access: … Read more
I’ve supervised a lot of great student projects in my nine years at MIT, but my inner nerdy teenager has never been as personally delighted by a project as it is right now. Today, I’m proud to announce that Adam Yedidia, a … Read more
The classic Busy Beaver game asks how long an n-state k-color Turing machine program can run before executing a halt instruction. The phrase “executing a halt instruction” is not normally used in stating the problem; instead, people just say “halting”. … Read more