Primes Quotes

Priming works best when you are on autopilot, when you aren't trying to consciously introspect before choosing how to behave. When you are unsure how best to proceed, suggestions bubble up from the deep that are highly tainted by subconscious primes. In addition, your brain hates ambiguity and is willing to take shortcuts to remove it from any situation. If there is nothing else to go on, you will use what is available. When pattern recognition fails, you create patterns of your own. In the aforementioned experiments, there was nothing else for the brain to base its unconscious attitudes on, so it focused on the business items or the clean smells and ran with the ideas. The only problem was the conscious minds of the subjects didn't notice. ~ David McRaney

It will be another million years, at least, before we understand the primes. ~ Paul Erdos

Q5. Have not I merely shown that it is possible to outdo just a particular algorithmic procedure, A, by defeating it with the computation Cq(n)? Why does this show that I can do better than any A whatsoever?

The argument certainly does show that we can do better than any algorithm. This is the whole point of a reductio ad absurdum argument of this kind that I have used here. I think that an analogy might be helpful here. Some readers will know of Euclid's argument that there is no largest prime number. This, also, is a reductio ad absurdum. Euclid's argument is as follows. Suppose, on the contrary, that there is a largest prime; call it p. Now consider the product N of all the primes up to p and add 1:

N=2*3*5*...*p+1.

N is certainly larger than p, but it cannot be divisible by any of the prime numbers 2,3,5...,p (since it leaves the remainder 1 on division); so either N is the required prime itself or it is composite-in which case it is divisible by a prime larger than p. Either way, there would have to be a prime larger than p, which contradicts the initial assumption that p is the largest prime. Hence there is no largest prime. The argument, being a reductio ad absurdum, does not merely show that a particular prime p can be defeated by finding a larger one; it shows that there cannot be any largest prime at all. Likewise, the Godel-Turing argument above does not merely show that a particular algorithm A can be defeated, it shows that there ~ Roger Penrose

The primes are the raw material out of which we have to build arithmetic, and Euclid's theorem assures us that we have plenty of material for the task. ~ G.H. Hardy

Whether at his desk or at the dinner table, when he talked about numbers, primes were most likely to make an appearance. At first, it was hard to see their appeal. They seemed so stubborn, resisting division by any number but one and themselves. Still, as we were swept up in the Professor's enthusiasm, we gradually came to understand his devotion, and the primes began to seem more real, as though we could reach out and touch them. ~ Yoko Ogawa

I really like even numbers, and I like heavily divisible numbers. Twelve is my lucky number - I just love how divisible it is. I don't like odd numbers, and I really don't like primes. When I turned 37, I put on a strong face, but I was not looking forward to 37. But 37 turned out to be a pretty amazing year. ~ Marissa Mayer

When you're excited, Brooks explained, "it primes an opportunity mindset, so you think of all of the good things that can happen. You're more likely to make decisions and take actions that will make [good results] likely to occur."16 ~ Amy Cuddy

God primes the pump of obligation. ~ A. P. Martinich

Risk heightens focus and flow follows focus. This means that the fight-or-flight response primes the body - chemically and psychologically - for the flow state. Athletes report moving through one to get to the other. ~ Steven Kotler

Economists sometimes do try to reduce behavior to law-like predictability. But people respond differently to different primes, to different contexts even from one moment to the next. We possess multiple selves that are aroused by different circumstances. ~ David Brooks

I don't care if 1 is prime or not, if 2 is prime or not, if 3 is prime or not. All I care is that there are more stars in the heavens than primes in the earth. ~ Giordano Bruno

I kind of modeled Optimus Prime's voice out of many people I had known over the years, my family especially. ~ Peter Cullen

3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, and 7 is a prime. Why bother with non-prime numbers when the primes can do everything? ~ William Of Ockham

Justice' primes the human habitat for peaceful and friendly togetherness. It sets the table - the round table - for polylogue and negotiations guided by the will of agreement. Justice is the most 'socializing' of values. ~ Zygmunt Bauman

The "Florida effect" involves two stages of priming. First, the set of words primes thoughts of old age, though the word old is never mentioned; second, these thoughts prime a behavior, walking slowly, which is associated with old age. All this happens without any awareness. ~ Daniel Kahneman

I wondered why ordinary words seemed so exotic when they were used in relation to numbers. Amicable numbers or twin primes had a precise quality about them, and yet they sounded as though they'd been taken straight out of a poem. ~ Yoko Ogawa

He treated Root exactly as he treated prime numbers. For him, primes were the base on which all other natural numbers relied; and children were the foundation of everything worthwhile in the adult world ~ Yoko Ogawa

I'm assuming Mona did something I need to know about. Tell me." Be a tattletale who whined to people's Primes? "No." "No?" Knox echoed with disbelief. Evidently, he wasn't denied things often. Well, Harper did like to introduce people to new experiences. It was more of a calling, really. ~ Suzanne Wright

You just hung up on my boss," I said.
"He was talking in circles. He'll get over it."
"You know what your problem is? 'You' as in Primes, in general?"
"I think you're about to tell me." Mad Rogan leaned forward with rapt attention.
"Your problem is that nobody ever tells you no. You think you can do whatever you want, enter wherever you want . . ."
"Seduce whoever we want." He grinned, a wicked, wolfish smile.
Oh no, we are not veering off the highway onto that road. "You play with people's lives. When cops show up, you wave your hand and make them go away. Because you are Primes and the rest of us are, apparently, nothing."
"Mhm," he said. "The irony of this is so rich, it's simply delicious."
"I don't see what's so ironic about it."
"I'd tell you, but it would ruin the fun."
"Could you be more smug?"
He leaned on his elbow. "Possibly. I see you liked the flowers."
I got a sudden urge to set the carnations on fire. "They are gorgeous. It's not their fault you brought them. ~ Ilona Andrews

The force of uprightness must baffle the weak. And unpleasant colossal notes are written to dying institutions in small primes. Take a dying institution holding on to prime and within sight of an individual able to tell the rude truth and uphold it, the dying institution will not stand ~ Dew Platt

1 is not prime, by definition. 2 is an unnatural prime, 4 is an unnatural prime, and 6 is an unnatural prime. All other natural primes cannot be unnatural primes. ~ Aristotle.

Twin primes: pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers, and you develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when you're about to surrender, when you no longer have the desire to go on counting, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly. ~ Paolo Giordano

Mathematicians call them twin primes: pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes, lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers, and you develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when you're about to surrender, when you no longer have the desire to go on counting, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly. There is a common conviction among mathematicians that however far you go, there will always be another two, even if no one can say where exactly, until they are discovered.

Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other. He had never told her that. When he imagined confessing these things to her, the thin layer of sweat on his hands evaporated completely and for a good ten minutes he was no longer capable of touching anything. ~ Paolo Giordano

Out there is a manlike machine who thinks he's a hero. Who thinks he can save the world. A man who calls himself Computerface." A gigantic buzz saw emerged from Adam Prime's chest, heading directly toward the center of the school bus. "And Computerface couldn't possibly watch all these innocent children die!"
"Do something, Harry!" Uterus screamed. ~ Kevin Strange