forgotten numbers

[Jonathan Post]

This is the OEIS equivalent of the metamathematical proof that there are no
uninteresting numbers. Start with 1, that's interesting, then 2 is the only
even prime, then 3 is the first odd prime and first triangular number, ...
eventually we come to a number with no interesting properties.  That makes
it the first uninteresting number.  That makes it interesting.  By
induction, all numbers are interesting.

Or, a meta-joke:

Starting with 1, consider whether each integer is interesting or not.
Eventually we reach the first uninteresting number. Who cares?

That one made my son laugh out loud.



On 9/28/06, Richard Mathar <mathar at strw.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:
>
>
> Now, eventually, often considered, never dared, the ultimate
> integer sequence, exposed, naked, which we shall call (for
> reasons that will emerge) "forgotten" numbers, or, as there
> are quite harsh critics out there which we also need to
> please, the "useless", or, to coin the appropriate terminus
> technicus, the anti-Sloanies:
>
> 8795
> 9734
> 9935
> 10017
> 10418
> 10776
> 11147
> ...
>
> In in each world, likewise in Mathematics, there are primes
> and Cardinals, amicables and pairs, socials and perfects.
> Yet, behind the scenes and under the stages, there are those
> who fill the void that would easily exist without their presence,
> never mentioned, obscenely ignored like some 42nd entry
> in an author list of hundreds, sharing the second number of their SSN
> with the third draw in some local lottery game of Feb 29.
>
> These are the
>   "smallest positive integers with no hits in the OEIS"
> as if their existence would be in doubt, and no merciful
> hand would give them a reason to exist. They share some
> unique properties
> - "inadmissible": any attempt to submit them into the acknowledged
>   list would automatically erase them and deprive them
>   from their status as they would no longer fit their
>   own definition, to quote a philosopher in fight with the
>   old proverb "I consume and thus I am":
>
>      "Now I do not know what mathematical is. I
>      guess next I will not know what " is" is.
>      "
>
>   As such, they are in the gray zone of all that is
>   almost isomorphic to (ATIAIT) the list (a.k.a. Moses 1)
>
>   %I A00000
>   %S
>   %N empty, void, nirwana, complement of A000027, njet, nihil, Das Nichts
>   %e none
>   %Y
>   %p quit
>   %o (PARI) quit
>   %o (C) int main() {}
>   %K fini,nonn,easy,base
>
>   which, likewise, is hardly ever spoken of, yetism, the back side
>   of the moon, things below the Planck length, worst pancakes in town.
>
> - "threatened": all of their members are highly fragile, as late
>   roses crushed by the first harsh snow of winter, threatened
>   by the swinging sword of the phraseology "conjectural,"
>   "..might be eliminated..", "..unproven..", joined in fate with the
> Siberian
>   Tiger, the Snow Leopard, the Latin Language, and O. Bin Laden.
>   Each day, each hour, some carelessly woven new entrepreneurial
>   sequence can force them to join their gang, which they do not have
>   the right to refuse.
>
> RJM
> The end is near...
> --------------------------------------------------------
> This message is not prepared by any software but hand-crafted like
> old rugs, typed on a standard keyboard with no special features, then
> sent with the embarrassingly old-fashioned "mail -I"
> ...and here it is
>
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