See you all in Wemding, Germany in 2033 for the next installation of this inevitable maths mistake.
Thanks to everyone involved with Zeitpyramide who were hugely welcoming and accomodating. Official Zeitpyramyde website: www.zeitpyramide.de/
Check out Ayliean MacDonald's excellent work on TikTok and indeed KZhead:
www.tiktok.com/@ayliean/video...
/ @ayliean
We also had an very helpful German-to-English translator in Benjamin Unger who kindly did not translate all of the speeches for me.
Read more about off-by-one errors in my book Humble Pi: mathsgear.co.uk/collections/b...
Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. They lift me up like a 6.5 tonne block. / standupmaths
CORRECTIONS
- 01:24 I say "square numbers" when I mean "even square numbers". First corrected by TheSamuelWells
- A few people have noted that the "clarinet" is actually a "soprano saxophone". I am very sorry to all the music nerds.
- Let me know if you spot anything else!
Filming and editing by Alex Genn-Bash
Written and performed by Matt Parker and Ayliean MacDonald
Blocky animations by William Marler
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson
All soprano saxophone music was recorded live on location.
MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician
Website: standupmaths.com/
US book: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...
UK book: mathsgear.co.uk/collections/b...
The designer was actually a genius creating the first german building project finished before schedule.
I'm really really high right now and this floored me.
@@itsDaedrinGerman humor is NO laughing matter!
@exoticloop well yeah, German humour is a heavy matter - that's why he is on the floor
10 years behind schedule too!
Omg 💀💀💀
10 years early is 120 months. 120 months, 120 stones. In that last decade do something to one stone per month - maybe paint something on, or engrave them. Each marker having some kind of historical event from a consecutive 20-year period from the town's founding. Just make sure whatever's done is done at the end of each month.
I like that
That would actually fix the off by one error, what a great idea
That's Genius!
That is a really good point. I like that a lot. lol Definitely at the end of the month. lol
this is great, I vote for this idea. Makes it a much more interesting art project.
This error has fucked me over in math competitions and in programming so much that the moment you said they built one in the first year I knew where this was going
😢
the good kind of ptsd
Same. I figured this problem out in 3rd grade but couldnt articulate it well enough to explain what was going on so my friends, family, and even teacher just shrugged and told me to stop overthinking it.
"future generations can figure out how that works structurally" It's that kind of forward thinking commitment humanity has as a species that settles my doubts on whether we'd survive that long.
Just to be clear, you're saying humanity will NOT survive that long?
@@lordzuzu6437 I leave to future me to figure that one out.
It's also enlightening to as perhaps the reason we have many crazy stone objects from the ancient world. "Perhaps our future ancestors can learn valuable information from the pyramid encoded with sacred geometry" As an example.
It also could be seen as a bit of a poison gift, since concrete is not very resilient when exposed to the outdoor weather.
There are only two hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors.
sound like this would be 10 problems ... :-)
True jokesters you 3
I can think of about 11 issues with this, give or take the one.
This makes me angry!
Sounds like four to me.
People in the future will think to themselves: The "off-by-one" error is so big they even made a monument for it.
This is brilliant
This reads like a Monty python sketch hahah
I wonder if the artist did the error in purpose to warn people about the fact we often let our future problems to future humans. (Like for ecology)
PhilBagels ideas is the only right idea: "Put an entire new pyramid on the top, but in miniature. Place 1 block every month, instead of every ten years. 120 months = the missing ten years! Of course, this still has an off-by-one error, because it will end a month early - which is, at least, better than being 10 years too early. But there's a solution to that, too! Build then a third, even smaller pyramid atop the second one, consisting of 120 smaller blocks, and place one every six hours. Six hours x 120 = one month! Then of course, you finish six hours too early, so you build another, even smaller pyramid..." It is incredibly appropriate because it brings in again the dimension of time, which is what the entire installation is all about. The installation should end when we start dealing with time increments that are too small for humans measure, or act within. Start on one end of time (large scales). Finish on the other end of time (small scales).
This is a lovely solution!
But it has its LIMITs
next is every 3 minutes and then 1,5 seconds so it is kinda hard to get the 5 one going and if you did the fifth one you need to place blocks every 12,5 miliseconds and then 104 microseconds then 868 nanoseconds then 7.23 nanoseconds then dmalq then sekihfnthenrlfcki.n,aw then oldkn
@@domin3k535did you have a stroke mid sentence?
Lol you did an off by one error. If the last big block is placed exactly 10 years before the anniversary, placing the first small block exactly one month after that will have the last small block being placed in the right time
The moment you explained what the blocks were and when they were being put, my first thought was hang on, that is off by a decade, they'll complete it a decade early. I paused the video, googled about it, went to Wikipedia to read about it, realised I was right, gave myself a pat on the back and came back to the video being happy, only to realise that that's what the video is about. A good lesson about patience!
Well, nothing is more satisfying that the good work done by yourself so... congrats!
I am a software developer with 10 years of experience. I am well familiar with the problem space. In my professional opinion, there is only one solution. You build the pyramid exactly to specification, and on the last year ('93) instead of placing a 121st block, you tear the whole thing down and rebuild it from scratch.
😂
I wanted to propose exactly this, but I got beaten by a programmer with 1 block of experience whereas I started programming 4 blocks ago.
I had a similar idea. Follow the plan as the artist designed and for the last anniversary date remove one block and set it on an adjacent platform. It becomes a horizontal hourglass.
This is the best idea. Additionally they could then start another pyramid next to it that will count 144'000 years. Though I think the people will own nothing in 10 years, be happy and can't afford to put any more pieces.
Only 10 years? Ah, an amateur. You need another 40 years experience before you understand how to solve this.
At the end, they will have 120 blocks and 10 years left. 10 years = 120 months, so they could paint or carve one block per month with something representing it's respective decade, showing the history of the city, and finish exactly by 1200 years!
To do that perfectly I think every 4 blocks you could use 4 months to paint 4 block, 1 for each month, then you place another block after 10 years. In this way, you have some sort of linearity and don't have to paint for a whole year. Also, people from 3000 will not be able to represent our times as well as we can today.
This also suffers the off by one problem, but if you start at the end of each month, which is reasonable, then they will end on the end date.
Yeah! great idea - or just number each block its date. Its like an extra loop for checking if all the earlier tasks have been accomplished successfully - an ASSERT statement :)
@@zenmasterfu, it doesn't suffer it if you finish it at the end of each month though does it?
This guy gets it.
"You know, they really didn't care that they're going to have a problem in 1170 years", pretty much sums up humanity in general.
Suck it future nerds
This is a great thing to point out for anyone who does a monthly podcast. My friends and I found out this the hard way, when episode 12 came up and we assumed it was our one year anniversary but we didn't account for the fact that episode one started on month zero so technically the 13th episode was our actual one year anniversary
To avoid situations like these we should probably all start to count from #0 like computers do
It’s just a ten year safety margin built right into it, the artist was obviously a genius project manager.
😂 Yes! Brilliant
well, i have another wild theory ... he was an artist, not a stand upp math comedian ... ya i know chocking. ...well im off to the local pizza bakery to see if thay can repair this GFX card..
@@Patrik6920 Well yea obviously not a stand-up comedian, it's in Germany they don't do joy and laughter. They don't even flavor their whipped cream.
@@reznovvazileski3193 lol, what a roast
There are two hard problems in computing. Cache invalidation, naming things & off by one errors.
huh??
I can see what you did there.
Brilliant! 😂
There are 10 kinds of people, those who read binary and those who don't.
Brilliant!
Just put one additional block next to the pyramid as the final block. It’s the best solution to not alter the original work, while still acknowledging the final anniversary, and as a great visual testament to the math/logic error. The purpose of this installation from its inception was to give humanity a different perspective of time, so the final block drawing attention to that by seemingly being out of place or an extra follows the artist’s intent, but again, does not actually touch the original art either.
Yeah, similarly I was thinking for the final block just start a new pyramid.
This is now the furthest away planned event in my calendar. After doing a ride on the California High Speed Train between San Francisco and Anaheim.
I think in the year 3193 they should just put a ceremonial cherry on top of the whole structure.
That was my thought.
welll....food wasting aint something germans like.
@@satakrionkryptomortiscigarette butts
It won't exist. There is no motivation like with a cathedral.
I think the fifth block will never been put in place...
There are two classic computer problems: 2. naming things 1. cache invalidation 0. off by one errors 3. asynchronous events
You're off by two! but yes xD
i thought there were only 10 problems... not 100..
That's brilliant
@a5672 i think the point is that an array of length 2 is actually 3 in length and by adding an off by one error it becomes 4
I c wat u did there I think
This is fascinating! I also came up with my own idea that I think is closest to still fitting a trainge. My idea starts with we keep with the 8x8 base, but we move each layer to the corner, so ascending 2 blocks in. 8x8 being 64, 6x6 being 36, 4x4 being 16, 2x2 being 4, and the last block being the final 121th block on the corner.
A perfect opportunity to turn an error into glory. The 121st stone can be a crown at the top of the structure.
I can see a post apocalyptic story showing the unfinished installation a couple of hundred years into the future as an obscure reference to when it all ended…
I agree completely. I feel like some of these massive projects, either in scale or time, can really drive home some realism in a story focusing "after the end". I think showing something that started generations ago, or has been in progress for generations really impacts the world they are placed in, moreso than showing some of mankind's other projects left in disrepair or being over taken by nature. Imagine seeing the Hoover dam before it was finished. With some sections already curing while thousands of feet of rebar is left exposed. It can really display just how quickly and thoroughly a large civilization had collapsed. Massive public works projects abandoned mid-construction. Equipment, machinery, and refined resources left to be scavenged by any remaining people. Reclaimed by flora and fauna.
Why not the Familia Sagrada? If it's a close future post-apocalypse, then you could have one of cranes collapse in the shot Edit: Didn't intend to seem disagreeing, was just adding 😊
Fallout: Germany. The stones are crumbled, but you can still see where they were once placed… A plaque on the monument shows what this was supposed to commemorate and how it was to be built. As you look at the worn, war-damaged pillars, you count the years: Row 1: 1993, 2003, 2013, 2023, 2033, 2043, 2053, 2063 Row 2: 2073… And that’s it… 8 blocks, 80 years, and then… nothing… The world ended.
@@cortos_9733 The cologne cathedral took 600 years to build and was left there with a giant crane just sitting in the middle of it for 350 years
Just a small cluster of survivors that have added their own blocks to keep it going.
Kinda shocked no one said "we'll just start the next pyramid 10 years after the first one is complete"
💯 what will happen… I know for sure - maybe with concrete that lasts as long as the Roman stuff this time!?🤯
it’s a long term study into human nature to see how much it bothers people when there is a mistake but we’ve been rolling with it for a millennia
@@floodo1 You just make a new art installation.
Yes, that's the obvious answer. They started the first pyramid on the first 1200th anniversary, so they'll have to start the second pyramid on the 2400th anniversary.
I have a theory that this mistake is part of the art, and this is the reason why. Like, you're not going to skip a decade just to fix the error, and when you get to the end, you get a decade to appreciate it being complete, and after that decade, what do you do? Do you just dust off your hands and leave it? No, you make a new plan and you put another block down. Maybe you start an identical pyramid and then when there are 4 pyramids you start filling in the gaps to make another big pyramid, and just fractally expand like that. I like to think the artist left this issue in and just didn't tell anybody, just hoping the legacy would continue even further.
Thanks for the great and informative as always video. That “old guy” though is not playing a clarinet. It is indeed a soprano saxophone!
I propose the last 10 years they actually make a piramid kinda shape and put it on top the last 4. that would be perfect
In my opinion, the best way to solve this is quite simple. The pyramid as originally designed was always missing a top stone; it can't have a 4 stones on top. 10 years after the original art piece is completed, one more stone needs to be set atop the rest to cap the project off. It could be one more cuboid spanning the other 4, or perhaps its a singular unique shape like a pyramid itself or an obelisk. It sounds like an incredible opportunity to run a 1000 year long design contest for the cap stone.
this is such a great idea
What about a red sphere? A "cherry on top", so to speak.
I was thinking the same thing. I think it would be a great way to end it.
I was about to comment the same thing - this is the only reasonable solution.
Doesn't have to be a stone, it could be anything that will be meaningful to the town a thousand years from now and fits on top of the four stones. Maybe they can put in a Times Square-esque ball that drops slowly every ten years?
It's simple: on the last year, you just place the beacon on top. (Leave a gold ingot nearby in a time capsule.)
You need a 3x3 top, not s 2x2
@y_12 Not in minecraf 1,200
based on personal experiences, i don't think concrete is gonna work.
I can tell you an example: In my town they installed a monument in the GDR in the 1960s. They put some letters to the future in it to be opened 50 years later. This was ten years ago. Few years before that, this socialist monument was demolished. No one seemed to know about the enclosed letters and no one found ones in the stones and most people did not know any more and most people did not care either. I hope that extending the Zeitpyramide every decade helps to counter forgetting the monument.
This makes me sad. It's all too human to dream, sadly it's all too human to crush these dreams as well. We are our own worst enemy
I think i have a solution. Instead of placing a 121th block, you place a crown on top of the 4 block. This way you "seal: the structure by saing that there are no more blocks to place and 1200 years have passed. This way it is kinda like placing a "roof" or a "stop" to the structure and you still have 120 block under the roof
I think a toppled over one right next to the pyramid is the best way to go about this. Not only does it honor the original Artists intent, but also acknowledges the mistake.
That's actually genius
Or a smaller pyramid-shaped piece as the capstone on top in the final event
This would also add some asymmetry, which always pleases the eye more than just a completely geometrically perfect shape! Indeed a brilliant idea! 👍
Agreed. Instead of trying to add a fence, kinda how the video put it. Why couldn't the first block acknowledge the previous decade. So when the last stone put in place it is still celebrating 1200 years but 120 blocks. I really think that was the intent.
I second this. The artist made their artistic choise, changing that would be a shame. Also 3 on top of each other already sohnds sketchy, like 11 on top of each other sounds dangerous af.
The most frustrating thing about this video is not the off-by-one problem, it’s really that he called a soprano saxophone a clarinet 😭
was looking for this comment :(
Indeed
My immediate thought as well
Yes😢
That's just for the engagement. Thank the youtube algorythm for that,
Thanks Matt, helps a lot!
I think another aspect of the art piece that's interesting is that you can also see the effect of the decades on the blocks themselves. The first block is visibly more weathered than the second, and so on.
I have a feeling the 2100s are going to be defined by a lot of abandoned 1,000-year art projects from the 20th century.
I'm not sure your maths are right..
Classic off by one error! You meant to say the 21st century didn’t ya😉
@@MrKnivan no
@@MrKnivan1900's is the 20th century, when this project was started!
@@almicc Theoretically, the year 1900 itself is in the 19th century.
yeah this is why in computer science we start counting at 0 to avoid off by 1 errors. sometimes it even works.
The foundation is the zero-ith stone. They should have put the first cuboid on the foundation after ten years, not at the same time!
Arrays start at 0 because the index is just an offset multiplier. Everything multiplied by 0 is 0. So the calculation works the same for every entry. So yeah in practice it's just "for historical reasons" for most people. Because nothing uses primitive data types like that anymore. And for very good reason, just the lack of type meta data is the reason for so many security issues in C(++) or ASM code.
Lua: _exists menacingly_
@@fgregerfeaxcwfeffece In the digital world, you can use four binary bits to represent 16 numbers, and those numbers are 0 through 15. Starting at zero is how the digital world works by definition. The off-by-one problem is a human construct based on human limitations, which is also why we say Jesus was born in year 1 instead of year 0, which means he turned 30 years old in year 31 instead of in year 30. Off by one. When it comes to time, the analogue clock and its face dial solved this by starting at 12 instead of 0. Hence all the 12h problems with noon, midnight and so forth.
The most famous off by one error is our calender starting at 1 CE. It is compounded by immediately following 1 BCE.
The Spiral Pyramid is such a cool fix, and it also better symbolizes the passage of time (it spins like a clock but also progressively gets taller; we know less and less about the future and the top will be the furthest away and furthest into the future).
Thanks for the interesting video! The "Zeitpyramide" isn't even that far from my home town and I'd never heard of it before. I'll try to be there in 9 years!
Dann bis in 9 Jahren, vielleicht sieht man sich ja...
They could place the final block of the pyramid on schedule, and install a plaque 10 years later. Commemorating the completion of the project on the 1200 year mark.
or they could put a concrete roof over the last four blocks to close the project
Nah, that would never work. Sorry.
@@chriswebster24 Why?
@@LucBogaert I agree. They're only short by one block, so installing some sort of final block or capstone feels like the most natural solution to me.
i bet they will destroy it on the 1200 mark and start another one in the same place, with the off by one error built in aswell of course
This feels like something that would happen in the hitchhikers guess to the galaxy. Like “when making the universe we were off by one” kind of thing.
"when making the universe we were off by one" 100% sounds like some hitchiker's stuff. You could make an entire installment to the series around that.
guide*
"I think it rather does matter where we are. "Earthish, or thereabouts" makes me think that you don't know how to read that thing," said Arthur. His headache had returned, and one of his eyes had begun twitching. "Look, it's just a rounding error. It's close enough, why are you being such an earthman about it?" said Ford, who had just taken on the appearance of feather dusters in a sock. The sock poked at a few more brightly coloured buttons to no effect. The computer made a moaning sound, and muttered it's intent to introduce hard vacuum to all inhabited areas of the ship, just as soon as it could remember the password. "Did you say something?" asked Ford. "Ford, you're a sock." said Arthur. He desperately wanted a cup of tea. "Oh, is that all?" said the sock. The sock reached into his satchel, pulled out a #2 Phillips head screwdriver. He used it to scratch his big toe, and then, with a sudden and furious shout of frustration, he jammed the screwdriver into the eye of the cactus that had taken the place of the computer terminal. There was a warm, echo laden, electrical sound, like someone shouting bzzzzzzZAP into a traffic cone. Suddenly Arthur leaped to his feed with a start. "What is it now Arthur, can't you see I'm trying to save our lives?" "fordlookoutthewindowplease" said Arthur. Ford turned and looked quizzically at Arthur, tilting his head slightly to one side, like a very clever dog (or a very stupid dolphin.) "Ah, Arthur, back to normal now. Good, good, I knew that would work. Did you say something?" said Ford. The off by one error had cause Arthur more than one problem during his so far short and uneventful (until last Tuesday) life. But this was getting out of hand. And there still wasn't any tea. "lookoutthewindowpleaseandtellmewhatthecockisthat" said Arthur. "Have you had a stroke?" asked Ford as he stepped towards the Earthman, but the white parlour that the Earthman currently wore as a skin colour was significantly more pale than usual. And Arthur came from England. He stopped for a moment to think, but decided to take the chance. After all, he was much more constitutionally suited to space stuff, being from Betelgeuse IV, and anyway, earthmen turned pale at all sorts of things. Broken plates. Rude words. Folding genitalia. A very odd species indeed. Ford braced himself, then spun counterclockwise on his heels until he had turned 290 degrees. He was looking directly into Arthur's ear. Ford made a mental note to pick up to some Q tips, and turned back toward the window. And first he wouldn't see it. Not that he couldn't see it. He could see it fine. But his brain refused to do anything with the visual information his eyes were providing. It just outright said no, and then locked the door. *** There you go, a little Douglas Adams pastiche. He would have done it funny though. I don't know why I did that.
Simples....the answer is 42
@@DJSockmonkeyMusic This is beautiful.
I would suggest adding a "template" block off to the side with an indication for the spacing and final design carved into it. It would add 1 block and be able to portray the plans for future generations if there ever was a pause.
Mat, you are a genius - double triangle number +1 spiral every time
I did an off-by-one error in my physics Master's thesis. The page limit was 40 pages, but the content started on page 3 (after the cover, contents, abstract etc.) and finished on page 43 (before the bibliography). There was a full grade deduction for going over this limit. Thankfully, both my supervisor and the independent marker made the exact same mistake and had thought it was 40 pages too so I didn't get the deduction.
Colour me impressed.
That would be infuriatingly bureaucratic if they did.
Wrong. The page limit was the floor of the number of pages so the last page didn't count. But they should have failed you for not knowing basic floor arithmetic.
Legend
@@RubiksTimmey That was one of the pages, yes.
At the end of the final decade, they can celebrate how they aren't putting in any more blocks after doing so for so long.
Now I wanted to see a finished one of this. Dang you, year 800 people, for not having started one of these
Man, I flicked my display, thought it was broken due to the dimm.
I particularly love that in addition to an art exhibit, it's also a real-world weathering calculation/record.
I wonder if future architects decades from now will make use of it in assessing construction material choice. Then again, it only really displays the weathering of whatever the local German makeup of concrete is, and that makeup almost certainly changes from decade to decade. I also doubt a long time from now we will even still be using concrete given its environmental costs.
@Saluno375 valid points. I wonder if the artist specified concrete type/mixture in the plans and the trust that oversees it.
Now I'm just imagining some ancient druid falling out of a time portal fresh from designing Stone Henge, then getting mad someone's stolen the same idea....
It's also good because it will show improvements in concrete mixtures over time as well. Also, future generations could put their own new materials into it to show what new elements they create in the future.
Trust me, Germans usually spend many moons to find the right concrete for the specific situation. I wouldn't wonder, if the use as weathering showcase wasn't at least seriously considered. You cannot simply have entertainment without innovation in Germany. Pure entertainment is hard to enjoy for us when it involves costs. 😊
Place a single last block on top of the pyramid to finish it off
a simple and easy solution
Or like paint the whole thing or cover it or whatever. Or pour the whole thing solid 😅
I feel like having one block next to the pyramid has something poetic to it.
@@wifi_cplay1238 Putting one on top was my first thought but I really like your idea.
Just stick a flag on the top 😂
just put one more in the middle on the top at the end... resting on the 4 last briks, you can even make it a little bigger so it stabilizes the 4 pillars in the middle, making it last longer and more secure.
This art installation was started 3 days after i was born, i wish i knew about it so i could have seen it last year
Lengthen the SI unit definition of “second” slightly to fix the error
No, you can’t lengthen it by 1/120. Then what we think is an “hour” will actually be about 30 seconds shorter than the new hour. Our clocks will gain about 12 minutes every day.
@@YamamotoTV2021i don't see the issue?
Time of arrival of season will differ.
@@votch2798 People might be 12 minutes early to meetings the first Monday if using the old clock. Then 24 min early on Tuesday, 36 on Wednesday, 48 on Thursday, and then an hour early on Friday.
@@votch2798 All of a sudden, people would have to go to stores and buy a new clock. It would be very crowded.
The 2 hardest problems in IT: * cache invalidation * naming things * off-by-one errors
These are trivial compared with something like "user requirements" or, beware, "business requirements".
@@falknfurtertrue. but I wouldn't say that's a problem specific to software. Lots of arts and crafts got that same issue
Just name things after fantasy or sci-fi books and movies (and adding numbers). That's why your google search results are produced by server BilboMcfly42069
The too hardest problems with it 's confusing one off concept is that having a phun's time is universal and yet not globally appreciated.
I'm guessing this is 0 indexed
A slightly bigger cuboid or pyramid as an end cap or stone topper at the top. It could be a separate cuboid or pyramid end cap or topper at the side. It will keep the artist’s vision and it will slice the off by one problem.
Last year, you could add a roof or some slab between each block to connect them and create ONE interconnected structure. Or you can reverse the process by removing blocks and repeat again and again until eternity. You may even create a second structure to the side of the first, where you add a block each time you complete one cycle on the first one!
Just put the extra block off to the side for the 2400 anniversary. Use it like a plaque. Also curious to how a concrete block that is hundreds of years old will deal with having a 6.5 ton block of concrete placed onto it.
Maybe if it was actually stone it would last but concrete? No way it will be up by 3193
Ive seen another comment saying they could build a support structure so the blocks aren't resting on each other but you still get to see the degradation over time
Any idea how much pressure these layers of blocks will put on the lower layers? In the center?
Degradation of the structure only adds to it. How do you visualise 1200 years? How about with withering concrete that is 1/12 of that.
@pedrolmlkzk look at Rome if you want to see ancient concrete still standing
12:06 “I’m leaving this to the future people” “That’s the theme!”. Had me chuckling haha
Celebrating not putting a block down for the first time ever since 1983 sounds like a strong connection to the past. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake. If they did make a change I think etching a message or symbol from each decade would be nice
In 565 years have a celebration of the half way finished pyramid/half way point. During that celebration you can add the missing block. You would still honor the spirit of adding a new block every 10 years and the completed art would end on the correct year with the correct number of blocks.
I actually think the 10 year celebration plan would work the best. All these blocks of time are just plain white, maybe we can use the 10 year period to paint onto them important events that represent each decade turning it into a true gallery of the past 1,200 years! There is also just enough space between each block that you can walk through it and see the art!
Thats amazing!
"We." That's a problem for people 1160 years from now. 1160 years ago from today Olaf the White was plundering Scotland.
As there are 120 blocks you could do one block every month for the last decade too!
Really nice idea!
Problem with that idea is that each block/decade would then be defined by those who didn't actually live in the time period. In fact, the gap of understanding from the first block to the final is more than 1000 years. Imagine trying to make a piece of art to exemplify the year 1024. Not only we lack historical records (mostly due to destruction, wear and tear as well as linguistics difference), the moral values we have today is totally different than those in the year 1024 so whatever we put on the piece might not be regarded as important by them Imagine if the only thing that those in the year 3024 know about us are the memes because to them we are the Memian Revolution in their history books. Do you think "gyatt skibbidy toilet" as in anyway important to your life or even define this decade? To those in the year 3024, they might see it in the same way we see the steam locomotives of the Industrial Revolution, an example of human ingenuity and the prpgress of technology.
I have to say that, for an art project that deals with our inability to comprehend large amounts of time, it's kind of poetic that it ends a decade early. If faced with this problem, before construction, I might have decided to leave it in, to hammer down on the theme.
Maybe this was the original idea of Manfred all along, but just kept it quiet. It wouldn't surprise me if an artist was thinking like that, trolling a lil' bit :D
or it can be an excellent metaphor for people's carelessness in regards to current actions and their unforeseen future effects, and the over-reliance on the "the future generations will figure it out" mindset towards things that outlive us.
The real solution would have been considering the foundation as the first block at the time. I think a really cool thing to do at the 1200th anniversary, is to replace the very first block, and from that moment on replace the oldest block every 10 years until the final block is finally replaced. So not only do we have a pyramid representing 1200 years, we have a continuation of the project that could last 14400 years, just to show what the impact is of 1 mathematical error, while also having plenty of other artistic representation(new generations etc). Only 14369 years to go!
I think it would be really neat to have some sort of sculpture or model representing the city put in on top of the 4x4 grid that then gets replaced every 10 years with a celebration.
"To late to fix it" sounds like someone lacking an explosives budget.
'To' or 'too' ?
"tja" - a German reaction to the apocalypse, Dawn of the Gods, nuclear war, an alien attack or no bread in the house. "Well, now it's too late."
🤣
And an imagination! Just slap as ingle extra on top in the end!
2:23 "Which is"- Me, looking at clock: "Last year" The video: "This year" Me, looking at the upload date: "...riiiight."
Off by one year error?
You can call it Parker year
@@danielwan2410recorded last year
@@Dr904really? how can you tell!?
@@EarlHare"Hot summer day" of "2023"
What if for the last event, they create a pyramid shaped glass cover over the whole thing It would create an event at the final date for which to celebrate, keep the symbolic 120 blocks to mark the 120 decades, and would also serve as a way of keeping the weather off the stones preserving the wear on the stones (at least a little bit) so that in the finished product you can see how 1200 years has affected each stone over time. Also at this point you can start a new pyramid if you like.
Timelapse of these gonna be crazy!
The pad will crack before layer 3 is in place
That can be fixed.
Its concrete. Its already cracked.
The first blocks will start to crush in 40 years. C'mon, water, heat, freezing colds...
The pad will crack before the first is even finished. I doubt they used roman concrete
I dislike everything about this. The look, the plan all of it. It's just bad.
The off-by-one error really lies at the heart of the difference between cardinal and ordinal numbers. Cardinals being 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, etc, and ordinals being 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.
My proposed solution- hear me out this is rather complex, after the last decade when the pyramid has been “complete” for ten years early- add a plaque explaining the whole thing at the end of the 1,200 year period to wrap it all up. No 121st block, but a cool sign to signify the very end of it
I really wish the blocks had engravings/plaques with the years on them. I think that would make the installation more impactful
8:24 that's actually a soprano saxophone! Because they're so small, they're often built straight as opposed to the classic curve saxes have.
It's a Parker Clarinet
I was wondering if we should tell Matt he made an obvious but understandable mistake.
I came here to say that too!
I came here to say this, too. 😄
I was wondering why it didn't sound like a clarinet
I think they should Cover the Blocks in paint/artwork for the last celebration. and re-cover it every decade. It keeps people engaged and interacting with it.
Or redo it for 1993-2022 and then add a small piece of artwork showing the technology and culture each year so it becomes the fences being counted instead of the fenceposts.
100% agreed. Quite frankly there should be paint pots and chalk out for the kids to colorise the blocks on the day. A public drawing spot beats random vandalism every time.
My idea for the extra decade is to put up a statue of the artist as the "one off block". It will be an interesting test to see if people will even remember who had the original idea for the pyramid 1000+ years from now.
For the 1200 year anniversary, they could commemorate its completion by sealing it in a glass case that protects it from the elements, preserving it’s look
I like the idea of cutting the first block in half and adhering a new part to it for the 121 "install". The original design is kept and the first block and last block will be forever joined, linking the two points in time.
Proud dad moment, which let me know I'd shown my son a good number of Matt's videos, when shortly into the intro to the video, he said "they're going to finish 10 years too early!" All 9 year olds should know about off-by-one errors.
I hope you've taught him the classic: "The two hardest problems in computer science are cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors"
@@odysyr and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows, and buffer overflows
@@odysyr every time i write a "foreach" loop in c# i mentally thank whoever invented that, so i don' t have to deal with debugging the inevitable mistake when i forget either the first or last index in the collection :D
@@benja_mint clasic for cycle over collection is a simple pattern. Once you get used to it, you never do off-by-one error again.
Where was your son in 1993?
I think it would be just quite a nice idea for it to be left open for them to choose what to put in place of the last stone, maybe some sort of statue or sculpture etc.
Add a final 4 block length and width block on top to cap off the original design as the last block.
Amazing video! As a structural engineer, two things come to mind as I was watching this: 1. You can't just place blocks on top of each other, there would have to be some sort of reinforcement sticking out of the existing block to facilitate the installation of the block above. Interesting to see how they figure that out down the track! 2. Will be interesting to see how the concrete lasts after 1200 years regarding durability. Typically the longest design life for durability we design for is 100 years, so I wonder how it will look 1200 years on! Even the first one 4 decades ago is showing signs of wear and tear already.
The shelf-life for reinforced concrete is about 100 years only. As moisture seeps into the concrete, the rebar will eventually corrode and cracks will begin to appear. Eventually, the concrete will perish under the weight.
@@magg0tmacdonald They may have little to no rebar in them, given that there's no tension load on them. My concern is for the foundation, which is under tension and would have rebar. Even the soil underneath too may well not survive that load for that amount of time.
the lowest is like 30 years, if you use really the cheapest suitable concrete. You see this in some stadiums, where even the concrete is already crumbling after about 30 years.
Who cares! It will never be finished. I'm sure something like a war, housing-development project, cost or just lack of interest will be the end of it well before the 1190 years are up.
i was also wondering if they're using some special formula of concrete. i think stacking the blocks together is not so problematic; the Romans used to just drill an aligned hole in both blocks and put a bronze (?) rod in there as a pin. and the Colosseum survived 2000 years no problem
My suggestion is for the last decade just put in a plaque announcing a pyramid overflow exception.
Honestly having an extra block place bridging the top blocks would be the most obvious solution and it would aid in stability a bit.
well thats then true art when you have to figure out where to place the last block. are we going to place it across the gap or possibly add something else as the finishing touch. but the truly most amazing part is going to be something we already see with the first: weathering. as there 1 every 10 years do we have an amazing time frame on concrete weathering something we couldn't even imagine as of now as our detailed recording of things is only like 300 years old way short than any any interesting time frame. this is pretty much a modern version of stonehenge
2:23 - "And the next one will go in, in 2023. Which is this year" I suspect this video was planned to be released much sooner than february 2024
8:26 Classic off-by-quite-a-bit mistaking this soprano saxophone with a clarinet.. 😂
Ah, so that's why its sound heavily reminded me of a saxophone and nothing like what I remember a clarinet sounding like. It also didn't quite look like what I remember a clarinet looks like, but I just assumed at first it might have been modded to look that way... at least until the audio for it kicked in.
@@C2TalonThat's a soprano saxophone, which is not as well known as the typical alto sax. It's got a lovely sound, one of my favorite instruments.
I came here to say the same thing. To those that were wondering, a clarinet was traditionally made from ebony or boxwood and black in color. It is sometimes referred to as a liquorice stick, due to it's black color. It has a completely different sound to the soprano saxophone and the only things in common are that they are both considered woodwind instruments and they produce their sounds via a single reed and mouthpiece.
@utha2665 Their defining trait is actually their bore shape. A clarinet's bore shape is primarily cylindrical, ignoring the flaring of the bell. A saxophone is primarily conical. These shapes produce different harmonic overtones, and that's where their color comes from.
@@ianemerson2704 I was going to mention this earlier, but I thought it might be too technical. I have been playing the clarinet since I was 10 years old. I still have one, although it's packed away somewhere and I haven't played it in years. Additionally, I used to play the Bari saxophone as well. I am aware that a clarinet overblows a 12th, while a saxophone overblows an octave. This is due to the difference between stopped cylindrical and stopped conical bores.
Think you forgot to mention the signs that are already showing, each block will erode at a different rate, also illustrating the passage of time.
do as planned and the last post is the moment where they dismantle it
10 years after the last block is done will be the first time in 1200 years that no block will be added - "finishing" the project for good
maybe the last piece can be a roof or sth
On the final anniversary celebration, install 120 small blocks all around as a decorative fence to commemorate the fence post problem that manifested the decorative fence to begin with. Bonus points if they do it wrong and there's only room for 119.
If the fence completes a loop, it will have the same number of posts as panels.
This may be nit picking but a fence does not necessarily need 1 more post than fence fields. When it goes all the way around and links up with itself then the number of posts and fence parts is equal. You would of course put a gate in to make it practical but that still counts.
This particular instance could’ve been avoided by using the foundation slab being the first “post in the fence”
The “concrete” that squishes out is called grout (cement and sand), and the feet to level the block are usually called shims.
Also. The lifting eyes (steel wire loops) are screwed into fixings cast into the concrete. They are then unscrewed and the holes filled with grout. (No spirit level required if the 4 packs are set at the same height)
13:50 Apparently Matt's solution is to attempt to build Escher's "Ascending and Descending" in real life.
Just need to put a viewing tower next to it so you can look from the correct vantage point.
I have another idea for this time piece. Make the block with the latest technology and material of that decade. This will show which pillar lasted long
This artwork needed to grow on me for a bit but it's awesome to see the age difference
A true monument to "let's make a problem for the future generations to solve"
Even better with Plutonium instead of concrete.
just add a pyramid cap on the top of the 2 by 2 of the original design. It makes the last year special, you could even make it out of something fancy like gold, or put a clock in that piece since its a representation of time, or maybe a prism.
Add a last block at the very top, but make it out of glass. That way, it respects the original design while finishing
If only someone caught it at the start, they could have used year 0 to unveil the platform and started placing the blocks from year 10
When I was enrolling in the first grade of a physical-mathematical school about 2,5 blocks ago they asked me several easy math problems, and one was a variant of the fence post problem. I still remember to this day that it asked how many times you have to saw a log crosswise to make a certain number (I don't remember exactly, but it was probably four) of identical blocks, because it was the only problem I got wrong, and as a 7-year old boy, I was very ashamed of myself and it became a lesson for life for me! I don't think I've ever made that mistake the second time, and indeed when Matt described the arrangement, I immediately realized how it won't fit
Hi, I was quite surprised when I found a video on youtube with a familiar background in the thumbnail.... I never realized this obvious problem, thanks for the great video! There are some great ideas in the comments to solve this issue, so let me make a suggestion too. It's over 1100 years in the future, in the last decade we'll make the damn thing levitate ;) Or, this is Germany after all. When the pyramid is finished, everything will be recycled... Best regards from Wemding
I like the weathering on the blocks. A true testament to time. I think they should have carved the blocks with historical information. Texts or pictograms to represent important events in that decade. Like Egyptian hieroglyphs. As to the last decade i think a cap on top of the last for blocks would be a nice ending. Made with a sun reflecting material.
I like Ayliean MacDonald idea, extend the foundations + second pyramid.