Davis Aurini - Do Prime Numbers have a Buddha Nature?
Aired: 2018-08-08
Duration: 07:27


=== Infinite Prime Mystery (07:25) ===

[00:00:02]  So in this video, I want to talk about prime numbers and whether or not they have a Buddha nature.
[00:00:15]  The great Zen master said once, do dogs have a Buddha nature?
[00:00:22]  Well, let's ignore the dog question for a moment.
[00:00:25]  Space Dog is asleep on the couch and she's not going to be joining us for this video.
[00:00:29]  Let's instead ask the question, are maps true?
[00:00:41]  Well, yes.
[00:00:43]  Yes, of course.
[00:00:45]  A map is true.
[00:00:46]  That is, the map just tells you what the land looks like.
[00:00:50]  Of course, it's true.
[00:00:53]  No, maps aren't true.
[00:00:55]  Maps are a gross oversimplification that tries to take this diverse territory and cram it into this small little square you have in front of you.
[00:01:09]  You know, the more detailed your map, the longer the coastline is.
[00:01:13]  How long is a coastline?
[00:01:14]  Depends on your level of detail, because every little squiggle adds a little bit more distance.
[00:01:23]  So maps, maps are true, and maps are false, and maps have a Buddha nature.
[00:01:35]  Now what about prime numbers?
[00:01:41]  So I recently did a video where I was talking about the proof of infinite primes.
[00:01:46]  I was talking about mathematical proofs versus scientific proofs, etc.
[00:01:51]  Well, I'd like to go back to that, that proof of infinite primes.
[00:01:54]  And I'll briefly cover it here.
[00:01:56]  Link down below if you want the thorough explanation.
[00:02:00]  Because once you understand the proof, you know there are infinite primes.
[00:02:05]  And the proof goes like this.
[00:02:07]  You take the highest prime number that you can think of.
[00:02:10]  We're going to go for 7 in this example.
[00:02:13]  Then you factorial it.
[00:02:14]  You take 7 times 6 times 5 times 4 times 3 times 2.
[00:02:19]  This gives you a result of 5040.
[00:02:22]  Now add 1 to that number.
[00:02:26]  By definition, this number is not divisible by 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, or 2.
[00:02:36]  So either it is a prime number, or it's a product of a prime number higher than 7.
[00:02:47]  And sure enough, it turns out to be the square of 71, the 20th prime number.
[00:02:54]  So by this proof alone, and you do this method to any prime number, factorial it, then add 1, you're going to have a number which proves that there's a higher prime number.
[00:03:10]  So there's an infinite number of prime numbers.
[00:03:15]  But here's the crazy part.
[00:03:21]  We know there's an infinite number of primes.
[00:03:26]  We don't know where they are.
[00:03:33]  The thing about a prime number is we state prime number as if it's a discernible thing.
[00:03:45]  But it's not.
[00:03:46]  Quite the opposite.
[00:03:47]  A prime number is a number that we can't find without brute forcing it, without walking.
[00:03:55]  Like there's no map for the prime numbers.
[00:03:58]  Our map says they are infinite, but it does not say where they are.
[00:04:04]  The only way we can find a prime number is by walking the territory, by taking every number and brute forcing it.
[00:04:13]  The definition of a prime number is a number that cannot be predicted, that cannot be formulaic, that cannot be arrived at through arithmetic equations.
[00:04:31]  It's a known unknown.
[00:04:39]  I really want you to think about this, how crazy this is, that we know there are infinite prime numbers, but we have no idea where they are.
[00:04:46]  And we will never know where they are.
[00:04:48]  Like, we know all the even numbers.
[00:04:53]  All the even numbers are very easy to figure out.
[00:04:56]  You can't make up a number, no matter how big, that I would say, huh?
[00:05:00]  I'm not sure if that's an even number or not.
[00:05:02]  No, we know what the evens and the odds are.
[00:05:06]  Same thing with the squares.
[00:05:08]  Squares can be arrived at very easily.
[00:05:11]  Not the prime numbers.
[00:05:12]  You have to brute force it.
[00:05:18]  And see, this is pointing towards something very crucial in Zen Buddhism.
[00:05:25]  Okay, the and Taoism.
[00:05:28]  The Tao which can be spoken is not the true Tao.
[00:05:33]  The Tao is bigger than what can be spoken.
[00:05:36]  The same way the prime number, we say prime number as if we know what we're talking about.
[00:05:40]  We don't know what we're talking about.
[00:05:43]  We know some of the prime numbers.
[00:05:45]  We don't know all of them and we never will.
[00:05:52]  The Tao which can be spoken is not the true Tao.
[00:05:56]  And numbers which can be formulated are not prime.
[00:06:03]  So we have this massive gap in our knowledge.
[00:06:06]  We know they're out there, we don't know where they are.
[00:06:10]  The only way we can know them is to walk along the beach until we find them.
[00:06:20]  And so what is knowledge then?
[00:06:22]  If we know it's true that there's infinite, but we can't find them.
[00:06:31]  We can prove they exist, but we don't know where they exist.
[00:06:38]  What does this tell us about knowledge in general?
[00:06:46]  What conclusions should we make about our day-to-day choices, our moral decisions, our pragmatic decisions?
[00:06:56]  If there's knowledge that we know but we can't know, there's a tree a lot of life, but surrounding the tree of life is other life that we can't see.
[00:07:12]  I think the only sane conclusion is to acknowledge with humbleness that prime numbers do have a Buddha nature.