by Tony » Thu Feb 18, 2016 7:14 pm
foerno wrote:i didn't get it. what's the joke?
Alice apparently considers immortality's only benefit to be the opportunity to engage in sex with more and more partners simultaneously, up to "the biggest number," which she asserts is 1,283. Betty realizes that Alice thinks this is
the biggest number that exists, and points out that adding one to it yields an even bigger number. Following the epiphany that she might have sex with 1,284 partners (or perhaps
more?) simultaneously, Alice realizes that she wants to be immortal after all.
At first I thought Alice meant that for some unspoken reason 1,283 was the maximum number of partners one could have sex with at once and live. Perhaps because 1,283 is a
safe prime?
[quote="foerno"]i didn't get it. what's the joke?[/quote]
Alice apparently considers immortality's only benefit to be the opportunity to engage in sex with more and more partners simultaneously, up to "the biggest number," which she asserts is 1,283. Betty realizes that Alice thinks this is [i]the biggest number that exists[/i], and points out that adding one to it yields an even bigger number. Following the epiphany that she might have sex with 1,284 partners (or perhaps [i]more[/i]?) simultaneously, Alice realizes that she wants to be immortal after all.
At first I thought Alice meant that for some unspoken reason 1,283 was the maximum number of partners one could have sex with at once and live. Perhaps because 1,283 is a [i]safe prime[/i]?