Fun with Numbers

Wired has a really interesting article on Ray Kurzweil the Singularity guy. In it they talk about his “exponential” thinking.

But Kurzweil had a special confidence that grew from a habit of mind he’d been cultivating for years: He thought exponentially. To illustrate what this means, consider the following quiz: 2, 4, ?, ?.

What are the missing numbers? Many people will say 6 and 8. This suggests a linear function. But some will say the missing numbers are 8 and 16. This suggests an exponential function. (Of course, both answers are correct. This is a test of thinking style, not math skills.) wired

Now I am not a math whiz but isn’t another possible sequence 2, 4, 16, 256…ie. 2×2=4, 4×4=16, 16×16=256.

Stuff can happen very, very fast.

Written by jay on March 28th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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#1. March 28th, 2008, at 7:59 PM.

Which, I guess, makes you a square thinker. I knew it!

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