this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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Anti Meme
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We're the anti-meme community where the joke is that there isn't one, and by explaining that, we've ruined the whole thing, but we all find the collective misery hilarious.
The music of comedy is more important than the joke itself.
Follow the instance rules please, this is a lovely instance.
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It's an old story from the middle east (maybe part of the a thousand and one nights story?), I think, about a king who granted a favor to someone, only requiring that it be small. The philosopher/farmer/common-man hero had the humble request of filling a chess board with grains of rice, starting with one on the first tile, but doubling each time. Some variants, you'll hear it as a gold coin. Anyone who does the math in their head, that's 2^63 on the last tile, plus all the others (so 2^64-1), which is more grains of rice than probably exist, maybe more than ever have existed (1.84e19).
Hmm, now I'm curious... but I see lvxferre has already done the math.
Thank you!