This is something I talked to my friend Emil about the other day.

Universe in 640×480 pixels images

I’ve made a program that randomly changes every pixel in a 640×480 pixel image. In the image above you can see different pixels changing colors 25 times each second. If this program run until it has produced every possible combination of pixels and colors, it has produced an image of everything that has and will exist in the universe! You will be in one image. In one image you will eat a carrot. In one image you will eat a blue carrot and have a funny hat. In one image you will celebrate your 100th birthday with friends in bar on Mars. With a smile. Crystal clear.

There will be images of every millimeter in the whole universe. From the big bang to the very end. Plus everything that have only existed in our minds, our dreams, our imagination. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?

An image can only have a specific number of different pixel and color combinations, and if so, if we create an image of every combination we will probably have loads of garbage, but also every possible image of everything.

But how long does it take to create universe like this?

A long time

An image of 640×480 pixels with 256 possible colors per pixel has (640*480)^256 unique pixel combinations. When I try to calculate that number in a calculator I get the answer: infinity. But it is finite. The number is 2*10^739811. That’s 365 A4-pages filled with digits!

The number of unique images we can make out of a 640×480 pixel 256 color image is 2*10^739811.

So if this program changes 25 pixels every second it will take 3*10^739802 years until every image has been created. That is 1.9*10^739813 times the age of Universe. 365 A4-pages filled with digits times the age of Universe.

Can anyone realize how big that number is?

Imagine an atom. One million atoms lined up in a row would roughly equal the thickness of a page in a book. Let’s say there are 4×10^79 atoms in universe. If we create one new universe for each atom in the universe we now have 16. x10^158 atoms. If we would have created one new universe for each atom in the universe every millisecond since the big bang, we would now have 8.3*10^180 atoms. And that number is literally nothing compared with the number above.

But it’s still a finite number. So maybe the universe is finite after all, or does repeat itself infinitely. At least seen through a 640×480 pixel image.

Please send me an email if you see yourself in the generated picture above.

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