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 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 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.
I'll one-up that. After 618 years there will be a massive doomsday panic that swipes the world. ... ...Because after 146 years the last person to know the purpose died. The plaques eroded, the computer systems replaced: the town will have no memory of it, except that it's very important that every 10th year they place another block. So they keep doing it, and start imagining reasons. Inevitably they'll end up believing that if they don't, the world will end. And so after 618 years as they're starting preparations to insert the 63rd block, they realize they're running out of space, and the world only has 12 years left. So now we need to know the exact layout, to know whether they'll be able to fit other blocks inbetween to give the world more time. After that, the next stage will be for them to stack blocks, breathe a sigh of relief that the world remains, until one day the tower becomes high enough that the entirety of earth's supercomputer capacity will be used to figure out how to add another block without collapsing the structure. Ironically, this overuse of capacity will ensure humanity no longer has capacity for basic needs, leading to civilizational collapse after all.
@@anarchynow3185 exactly. from their perspective it must be impossible for their fore fathers to lift those heavy stones without antigrav harnishes. it had to be aliens... or mole people.
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.
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 :)
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..
I love everything about the Zeitpyramide. The small mistake. The "I don't care, someone else will need to figure it out." attitude. The fact that so many will see the progress but not the finished piece.
Engineer here. Im my opinion, the key to this problem is in the rebar in each block. You see, in 1000 years when the first layer is done, all of the early blocks will be dust or rubble due to spalling. Elegant!
I like the idea of the concrete showing its age and the passage of time. Perhaps the layers will need some I-beams constructed to support each one instead of the layer below them. I would hate to think they would replace them every 100 years...(most modern concrete only lasts about 100 years or so, right?)
@@mattw5840 the pyramids are mostly quarried limestone with some concrete, but there are plenty of ancient structures made from concrete. The difference is that we use rebar to reinforce concrete now, which improves its tensile strength but eventually leads to failure. Roman concrete is also self-healing, but I'm fairly certain modern concrete is as well. Don't quote me on that tho
This was my thought when I first saw the rebar sticking out the top too. The first thing I would have done on this project was design a fibre reinforced mix that would work as planned, without rebar.
@@neofitou The rebar was for transportation, not stability. Given that the other blocks had no visible rebar in the top view shots, I'd guess that afterwards they drilled out the rebar and put fresh concrete on top to seal it up. I'd also expect that they've considered the effect of concrete aging on long-term structural stability. While weathering is doubtless intentionally a part of the art installation, I expect they chose a concrete mixture that's expected to still be standing when they're putting in the final blocks. Maybe they went back to the roman recipe?
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.
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?
With some forethought, this could've been avoided by making the base slab itself the first part of the installation. That way, there is a grand start to celebrate.
@@fahrenheit2101 Exactly what @vcool122 said: Without hindsight, you can never learn from your mistakes, and you can never learn from your successes, which means you will never gain any experience. Thus, everything you do will then essentially have a random outcome, as your life will always be nothing but a trial and error effort, meaning you will probably die very young.
The cool part is that it will also be an atmosphere database, as each concrete block stores information from the atmosphere at the moment it was made!!!
@@20quid I have my doubts if this project will succeed as far in the future as intended. First of all the foundation seems to be made from reinforced concrete which has a lifespan of about 50-100 years, and the blocks are also made from reinforced concrete. There is also the fact that future blocks rest on the very old blocks, in this case, let's say that the foundation lasts that long by some miracle, the first blocks have to bear the load of three future blocks on top of it, and I doubt that this will be feasible. If you really want to make such a structure you can't use modern materials, you would need to use materials and techniques like the ancient Agyptians used. Structures made with modern materials and techniques need to be maintained all the time, and even that makes them not last very long, motorway bridges for example need to be teared down and rebuild after 100 years maximum even with proper regular maintenance. Some contractors probably earned well on this project since it's probably governmentaly funded, just for it to be swept away with a broom in a decade or so.
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.
The completion of this generations-long project is going to be an anniversary in itself, so maybe it is a blessing in disguise that it no longer lines up with the anniversary of the town so that both can be fully appreciated without competing for attention.
I think just putting a single extra block on the top at the end is a nice way to recognise the issue which has now become one of the greatest things about the project while still getting to celebrate each decade
@@Rubic13 yeah, a capstone, maybe a pyramid that sits on top of the last 4 blocks. Or they could just paint them all instead of white. Maybe even murals instead of single colors. Maybe create some kind of 3D effect with the drawings like some street art.
My suggestion: Skip the stone for 2793 (or put it in the town square instead of in the pyramid, for example) as a celebration of the town's 2000 year anniversary, and then in 2803 go back to putting new ones in the pyramid, and now the last one will go in during the appropriate year. Edit for clarity: assuming you place the 2793 stone somewhere else, then you would need 121 total, as opposed to the 120 under the current plan. If you put it in the town square, perhaps you could use it as a plinth for a statue of the artist, or another important figure in the town or region's history.
Knowing how terrible we are at constructing anything these days, the whole shebang will collapse into rubble long before 2793 anyway and they can start over.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Put the blocks in about 1 month later each decade. 4 blocks are in, 1170 years to go with 116 blocks. About 31.5 days later each decade not only gets the last block in on the right day but during the art installation all seasons are captured over each resident's expected lifespan.
This is absolutely the solution here 😂 honestly it's the easiest way to keep it going without throwing the whole project out of wack. While still being accurate to 10 years by less than 1% (5/6th a percent)
This also fixes the off-by-one error that Matt and Ayliean are committing. In their suggestions they have 121 concrete blocks to represent a time period of 120 decades. I my opinion that's worse than finishing 10 years early.
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.
14:13 I would not want to sit anywhere near either of the structures suggested here - neither Matt's nor Ayliean's plans looked architecturally stable.
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.
@@nickfifteen I was thinking the exact same. It'll ruin the evenness of the slope, but it'll still be symmetrical, and that's the 32nd century's problem anyway!
The most obvious solution is to follow the original plan, and place a single additional cuboid on top, spanning the four below. Or, for a flourish, make it a sphere or some other significant shape.
"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.
If this had been anticipated, they could have just made the platform for the zeroth celebration in 1993. To fix it now, in the last decade they could build a pavilion or building around the structure to turn it into a park or for preservation, or they could build a museum adjacent to it to fill with mementos from each celebration. Then the last celebration in 3193 doubles as a grand opening for the new park/museum.
@@allmybasketsinoneegg That's obviously the cleanest solution. It would break the geometry slightly by making it steeper at the top than the bottom though. That could be fixed by having the cap be a 2x2 pyramid rather than a cuboid block like the others.
That was my first thought, either cap it with a block that spans the four central blocks or, since it's the end of the artwork, cap it with a special pyramidal capstone that matches the (implied) slope of the edges.
"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.
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.
The obvious solution to me is to have the 121st block next to the pyramid, like a plaque with an inscription of the art project or history. People are saying putting it on top, but that goes against the flow of the rest of the project, so definitely not that.
My idea to “fix” the off by one error. Stay the course, exactly as originally intended, and simply put in a plaque commemorating and finalizing the project on the final year.
Yeah, this was pretty much my thinking as well, you don't want 121 blocks, that doesn't evoke 1200 years. I think the first time you got the ten year mark and say "oh, there's no block to put in 😐" that's going to be huge.
I'd consider adding plaques to each block, each commemorating events in the town, births, deaths, maybe big world events, stuff like that, for the time period it represents. Then it not only displays the sense of history, but the history itself. The off-by-one disappears as you need the decade's events for the block to 'finish' it.
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.
@@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.
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.
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
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
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.
You are okay the way you are. You don't need to prove yourselves with intelligence or whatever. Also every person will turn into stupid, powerless dust sooner or late, quickly or slowly. Humble up
The only problem I see is they should build up immediately as they get to that row. It will both be more impressive from the side in the meantime and it also prevents the unnecessary hassle of balancing the blocks in the middle of the pyramid in the future.
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.
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. 😊
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.
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!
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.
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.
@@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.
My suggestion? Make it an extra layer of art, but only on that final anniversary. They leave each and every stone unmarked until the final decade passes, then unleash a horde of waiting artists to paint this magnificent art-turned-canvas with 1200 or 2400 years of artistic concepts and ideas.
Also, we have 62 outside blocks. In the final decade before the artists painting them, clean them and decorate their borders as if they were canvas one block every two months for the last ten years as if "speeding up the time in anticipation"
@@pabloweap That's great! Only 97.5% of the construction time remaining. Good luck keeping the concrete structurally sound enough to support dozens of tons above them at that point, let alone clean.
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
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
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.
Simple solution. Add one block at the tpo center. I keeps the square number rule, fixes the one off error, and .makes the pyramid more esthetically pleasing.
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.
I think it's perfect the way it is...here's a solution, think about it: They started the project in 1993, it will finish in 3183. Do they just stop celebrating the age of their town then? No, 10 years after they finish, and 1200 years after they started, they'll start again...pour a new foundation next to it and place the first block. I think more than celebrating the past, the project is one of hope and trust towards the future...the belief that it WILL be completed eventually. Laying the next first block imo is more meaningful to celebrate than placing the last...because if they don't continue, if they don't have hope for the next 1200 years, then is it really worth celebrating the END of trusting in the future?
I was born in 2003 so while its not as special as 1993 its still pretty cool to have each decade milestone in my life be capstoned by one of these blocks. My birthday is in summer so that works out nicely too
I like that there is an error in its creation. The whole monument reminds me of how human we are. We live short lives. We only hope to comprehend what 1000’s of years feels like. We are simple creatures who celebrate the placement of concrete blocks… AND all of that to top it off with our unavoidable human imperfection - the miscalculation.
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.
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 was thinking similar like a capstone like ancient pyramids had. a "mini pyramid" if you will. the final stone during the final celebration and doesn't change the overall concept and acts as the ending to the adventure.
yes, I was thinking the same thing. They just add a special cap that is a pyramid shaped stone on the top that spans the 2x2 on top for the 121st stone.
After installing the 120 block, we can start coloring or decorating a block each month. It will take 120 months, which is 10 years. It would be cool to invite some artists who will try to repeat the paintings of the past on the blocks according to the time of their installation.
A fun solution would have been to make the blocks in place : build the frame at beginning of the decade, pour the concrete, and let it cure for the whole decade. Then remove frame, build next frame, etc. Then, each block would have really represented each decade !
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.
@@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
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.
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
it wont finish... the first blocks will need to be replaced/restored in a couple of decades anyway and the further time goes the maintentance will just increase and cost more money.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
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 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.
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.
In 1200 years people will wonder why there are 6 moss covered concrete blocks on that hill 🤔
I'll one-up that. After 618 years there will be a massive doomsday panic that swipes the world.
...
...Because after 146 years the last person to know the purpose died. The plaques eroded, the computer systems replaced: the town will have no memory of it, except that it's very important that every 10th year they place another block. So they keep doing it, and start imagining reasons.
Inevitably they'll end up believing that if they don't, the world will end. And so after 618 years as they're starting preparations to insert the 63rd block, they realize they're running out of space, and the world only has 12 years left. So now we need to know the exact layout, to know whether they'll be able to fit other blocks inbetween to give the world more time.
After that, the next stage will be for them to stack blocks, breathe a sigh of relief that the world remains, until one day the tower becomes high enough that the entirety of earth's supercomputer capacity will be used to figure out how to add another block without collapsing the structure. Ironically, this overuse of capacity will ensure humanity no longer has capacity for basic needs, leading to civilizational collapse after all.
Aliens, it must have been aliens.
That comment gave me actual goosebumps 😮
@@anarchynow3185 exactly. from their perspective it must be impossible for their fore fathers to lift those heavy stones without antigrav harnishes. it had to be aliens... or mole people.
C'mon. I think they'll make it to at least 12.
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.
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.
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
I love everything about the Zeitpyramide. The small mistake. The "I don't care, someone else will need to figure it out." attitude. The fact that so many will see the progress but not the finished piece.
Engineer here. Im my opinion, the key to this problem is in the rebar in each block. You see, in 1000 years when the first layer is done, all of the early blocks will be dust or rubble due to spalling. Elegant!
I like the idea of the concrete showing its age and the passage of time. Perhaps the layers will need some I-beams constructed to support each one instead of the layer below them. I would hate to think they would replace them every 100 years...(most modern concrete only lasts about 100 years or so, right?)
The pyramids are made of concrete right?
@@mattw5840 the pyramids are mostly quarried limestone with some concrete, but there are plenty of ancient structures made from concrete. The difference is that we use rebar to reinforce concrete now, which improves its tensile strength but eventually leads to failure.
Roman concrete is also self-healing, but I'm fairly certain modern concrete is as well. Don't quote me on that tho
This was my thought when I first saw the rebar sticking out the top too. The first thing I would have done on this project was design a fibre reinforced mix that would work as planned, without rebar.
@@neofitou The rebar was for transportation, not stability.
Given that the other blocks had no visible rebar in the top view shots, I'd guess that afterwards they drilled out the rebar and put fresh concrete on top to seal it up.
I'd also expect that they've considered the effect of concrete aging on long-term structural stability. While weathering is doubtless intentionally a part of the art installation, I expect they chose a concrete mixture that's expected to still be standing when they're putting in the final blocks. Maybe they went back to the roman recipe?
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...
The worst thing is this could have been avoided if they had just done only the foundation for the first decade.
As they did, in fact!
Now we know it's not true, but in 1000 years no one will do.
@@giovannizezza9106 What? They did? Not true? 1000 years? Will do? What? WAHT!?
@@giovannizezza9106they will know because they know the start year and have the current number of blocks on the foundation
@@giovannizezza9106They will know, because they can count and will still know why the pyramid is being built.
@@DlcEnergy Im just as confused as you are...
2:49 perfect solar eclipse visible in germany
nah crazy
Lmao
he is the chosen one!!
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
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?
With some forethought, this could've been avoided by making the base slab itself the first part of the installation. That way, there is a grand start to celebrate.
hindsight is pointless without a time machine.
@@fahrenheit2101 Yes, but we can learn from our past mistakes to prevent doing them again in the future. That's why hindsight is usefull.
@@fahrenheit2101
Exactly what @vcool122 said:
Without hindsight, you can never learn from your mistakes, and you can never learn from your successes, which means you will never gain any experience.
Thus, everything you do will then essentially have a random outcome, as your life will always be nothing but a trial and error effort, meaning you will probably die very young.
Honestly just plan to have a capstone and it's fixed
@@vcool122 Hopefully they'll keep that in mind in 1,200 years when they start their new 12,000 year art installation.
The cool part is that it will also be an atmosphere database, as each concrete block stores information from the atmosphere at the moment it was made!!!
Hopefully they're made the year they're placed and not premade and sitting in a warehouse somewhere 😆
This is pretty cool.
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)
People in the future will think that when the pyramid is complete the world will end. We've just created a new Aztec calendar.
@@20quid I have my doubts if this project will succeed as far in the future as intended. First of all the foundation seems to be made from reinforced concrete which has a lifespan of about 50-100 years, and the blocks are also made from reinforced concrete. There is also the fact that future blocks rest on the very old blocks, in this case, let's say that the foundation lasts that long by some miracle, the first blocks have to bear the load of three future blocks on top of it, and I doubt that this will be feasible. If you really want to make such a structure you can't use modern materials, you would need to use materials and techniques like the ancient Agyptians used. Structures made with modern materials and techniques need to be maintained all the time, and even that makes them not last very long, motorway bridges for example need to be teared down and rebuild after 100 years maximum even with proper regular maintenance. Some contractors probably earned well on this project since it's probably governmentaly funded, just for it to be swept away with a broom in a decade or so.
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.
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!
The completion of this generations-long project is going to be an anniversary in itself, so maybe it is a blessing in disguise that it no longer lines up with the anniversary of the town so that both can be fully appreciated without competing for attention.
I think just putting a single extra block on the top at the end is a nice way to recognise the issue which has now become one of the greatest things about the project while still getting to celebrate each decade
Yep - that is a very logical solution.
Plus it makes the last block break up the pattern, to further signify the end of the project.
Agreed, I was thinking some sort of final capstone.
That's the first thing I thought as well.
@@Rubic13 yeah, a capstone, maybe a pyramid that sits on top of the last 4 blocks.
Or they could just paint them all instead of white. Maybe even murals instead of single colors. Maybe create some kind of 3D effect with the drawings like some street art.
My suggestion: Skip the stone for 2793 (or put it in the town square instead of in the pyramid, for example) as a celebration of the town's 2000 year anniversary, and then in 2803 go back to putting new ones in the pyramid, and now the last one will go in during the appropriate year.
Edit for clarity: assuming you place the 2793 stone somewhere else, then you would need 121 total, as opposed to the 120 under the current plan.
If you put it in the town square, perhaps you could use it as a plinth for a statue of the artist, or another important figure in the town or region's history.
this one's my favorite that i've read thus far
A leap block
Knowing how terrible we are at constructing anything these days, the whole shebang will collapse into rubble long before 2793 anyway and they can start over.
@@DWestheim It's just stacking blocks of concrete, there isn't much construction going on.
Wouldn't your pyramid be missing a block then? The problem was that they started too late. Exactly 10 years too late.
A perfect opportunity to turn an error into glory. The 121st stone can be a crown at the top of the structure.
And it still follows the square number rule.
@@pvtsnowball82 Exactly!!! 1^1=1 Ezpz
I was physically repulsed that a single block wasn’t the final one.
But it won't line up like the other blocks do
Also 121 being a square number may be an un planned "cherry on top" quite literally..
The spiral staircase idea is also more interesting than the original pyramid. Being able to climb it as the ages pass is cool
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 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.
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.
The spiral is great, since you can make a walkway that grows longer as you go
They gave people 10 years to argue about putting a block on top, ruining the even number maths, but actually making it a 1200 year old project
Wondered why they didn't change to that
Put the blocks in about 1 month later each decade.
4 blocks are in, 1170 years to go with 116 blocks. About 31.5 days later each decade not only gets the last block in on the right day but during the art installation all seasons are captured over each resident's expected lifespan.
This is absolutely the solution here 😂 honestly it's the easiest way to keep it going without throwing the whole project out of wack. While still being accurate to 10 years by less than 1% (5/6th a percent)
yeah i immediatly thought of that :D easiest solution
This also fixes the off-by-one error that Matt and Ayliean are committing. In their suggestions they have 121 concrete blocks to represent a time period of 120 decades. I my opinion that's worse than finishing 10 years early.
I think this or skipping a block in the middle and counting the slab is the best option
I think this is the winner since nothing physical has to be altered
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
14:13 I would not want to sit anywhere near either of the structures suggested here - neither Matt's nor Ayliean's plans looked architecturally stable.
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.
They should honestly just add another block in a random spot. Now it represents two things, time, and human error.
Just bring an extra block and lie it on its side, at an off angle in the grass next to the pyramid
Just put one on the top, like a cap stone. Easy peasy
@@nickfifteen I was thinking the exact same. It'll ruin the evenness of the slope, but it'll still be symmetrical, and that's the 32nd century's problem anyway!
this is a fantastic suggestion probably my favorite
I like the idea of an extra block placed nearby with engraved text explaining what the project was and its history. Like a plaque.
The most obvious solution is to follow the original plan, and place a single additional cuboid on top, spanning the four below. Or, for a flourish, make it a sphere or some other significant shape.
Agreed, I had the exact same thought.
just give it a hat. a concrete crown or something.
pyramidion
So, we make it a Parker pyramid?
I came to comment basically this, so I will instead upvote yours so we can all agree it’s the most obvious solution.
The easy fix is to put a triangle with a base as wide as those 2 X 2 blocks on top
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
@@ThatSockmonkey This is beautiful.
If this had been anticipated, they could have just made the platform for the zeroth celebration in 1993. To fix it now, in the last decade they could build a pavilion or building around the structure to turn it into a park or for preservation, or they could build a museum adjacent to it to fill with mementos from each celebration. Then the last celebration in 3193 doubles as a grand opening for the new park/museum.
This or a capstone resting on the 4 center pillars. After all, 1 is a square of 1.
@@allmybasketsinoneegg That's obviously the cleanest solution. It would break the geometry slightly by making it steeper at the top than the bottom though. That could be fixed by having the cap be a 2x2 pyramid rather than a cuboid block like the others.
That was my first thought, either cap it with a block that spans the four central blocks or, since it's the end of the artwork, cap it with a special pyramidal capstone that matches the (implied) slope of the edges.
"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.
Humans always figure it out, we are the smartest beings on the planet, we always pulled through, one way or the other.
The obvious solution to me is to have the 121st block next to the pyramid, like a plaque with an inscription of the art project or history. People are saying putting it on top, but that goes against the flow of the rest of the project, so definitely not that.
My idea to “fix” the off by one error. Stay the course, exactly as originally intended, and simply put in a plaque commemorating and finalizing the project on the final year.
Yeah, this was pretty much my thinking as well, you don't want 121 blocks, that doesn't evoke 1200 years. I think the first time you got the ten year mark and say "oh, there's no block to put in 😐" that's going to be huge.
I'd consider adding plaques to each block, each commemorating events in the town, births, deaths, maybe big world events, stuff like that, for the time period it represents. Then it not only displays the sense of history, but the history itself. The off-by-one disappears as you need the decade's events for the block to 'finish' it.
Or just skip a decade in the middle somewhere when there is some disaster or war and call it the lost decade.
@@rustknuckleirongut8107 Say it started 10 years early, the first "block" was simply the foundation. Burn any evidence of the contrary.
The least exciting of all the possibilities, and also, the most likely by far
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.
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
Such a fascinating project. Love the video!
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,
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.
I’m pretty proud that I caught that off by one mistake as soon as Matt said that they put up the first block in 1993.
i read this comment when he said this year is 2023 and thought that that was the off by one error you meant
Yes, I caught it too. I was a bit surprised that they'd finished the foundation and put the first block straight in.
You are okay the way you are. You don't need to prove yourselves with intelligence or whatever. Also every person will turn into stupid, powerless dust sooner or late, quickly or slowly. Humble up
@@boRegahlmfao
I didn't catch it... but I don't care. I'm a programmer, it's kind of my job not catching it.
The only problem I see is they should build up immediately as they get to that row. It will both be more impressive from the side in the meantime and it also prevents the unnecessary hassle of balancing the blocks in the middle of the pyramid in the future.
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.
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. 😊
Great video Matt! One correction, because I am a nerd like you. That was not a clarinet, but a soprano saxophone. Thanks!
oh thank goodness I wasn't the only one
Off by one instrument.
Beat me to it!
Reading this before I see this instrument is very funny. :) I should just comment this on other videos for fun.
A Parker clarinet, perhaps?
I like how the whole vibe is just "they'll figure it out"
I keep forgetting that Matt isn’t Tom Scott and am surprised whenever he puts out a 2024 video.
An easy way to tell the difference is Matt doesn't have a red shirt.
@@AD-qs9sb He also doesn't have the whole hair situation
I actually did realize that this isn't Tom Scott until now. I was just watching the blocks
Matt is not a perfect Tom Scott, but he gives it a go. I guess you could call him a Parker Scott.
@@aaroncappra6696 He makes up for the lack of hair with his beard.
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.
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.
Dont change it, just add another block to the top to make it the cherry on top as the correction we cannot change the look of what was imagined
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.
sad to hear that artist passed away before he could see the very last block dropping in its place
Ofcourse he didnt
@@iamcubeerThat's the joke dum-dum.
@@Miron_Marnic completely forgot bout this comment i made, not like i care
@@iamcubeer I did not force you to reply ¯\_༼ᴼل͜ᴼ༽_/¯
@@Miron_Marnic i felt like it :)
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.
I get it's about math's, but seriously, just paint it for the last decade 14:41
12:06 “I’m leaving this to the future people”
“That’s the theme!”. Had me chuckling haha
My suggestion?
Make it an extra layer of art, but only on that final anniversary. They leave each and every stone unmarked until the final decade passes, then unleash a horde of waiting artists to paint this magnificent art-turned-canvas with 1200 or 2400 years of artistic concepts and ideas.
Don't you worry. Spraycan-toting "artists" will be making their mark on this installation LONG before then.
@@tiyenin It has been 30 years and it seems fine, doesn't it?
Also, we have 62 outside blocks. In the final decade before the artists painting them, clean them and decorate their borders as if they were canvas one block every two months for the last ten years as if "speeding up the time in anticipation"
Look at the color of those after only 30 years, that thing is definitely going to need a good paint job at the end.
@@pabloweap That's great! Only 97.5% of the construction time remaining. Good luck keeping the concrete structurally sound enough to support dozens of tons above them at that point, let alone clean.
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
Honestly, what better a metaphor than passing down a problem to the next generations.
I'd guess this was likely the intention all along.
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
When you said that in 1993 they put one down, it immediately clicked what the problem was
I see you are a fan of Nichijou too
@@hjk4583 I see you are a fan of minecraft too
@@Oyaoyaka I see you are a fan of YOASOBI too
@@DamePicko looks like we're all one and the same
@@georgeshao Damn it you could have continued the chain
Ah yes, the soprano saxophone. Truly the Parker Clarinet of the clarinet family.
Two off by one errors! Plus one clarinet, minus one soprano saxophone. It's all part of the Parker Orchestra.
Thanks for this!! As a music teacher, I appreciate this comment.
Soprano sax was good enough for Coltrane; that's good enough for me.
No one ever, though, loved the true Parker saxophone: the Sopranino.
Sounds like someone may need to eat some Humble Pi. He didn't think it looked odd for a clarinet??
@@andrewmastronunzio615 tbh I assumed he was making a deliberate joke to prompt a comment like mine
Bro’s building a beacon and thinks I wont notice.
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
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.
My suggestion is for the last decade just put in a plaque announcing a pyramid overflow exception.
Simple solution. Add one block at the tpo center. I keeps the square number rule, fixes the one off error, and .makes the pyramid more esthetically pleasing.
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.
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
It seems so obvious to do it that way. I feel like the designer must’ve had that as the idea at some point but then they messed it up.
Or put one finale block on top to make it an actual pyramid
I think it's perfect the way it is...here's a solution, think about it:
They started the project in 1993, it will finish in 3183.
Do they just stop celebrating the age of their town then?
No, 10 years after they finish, and 1200 years after they started, they'll start again...pour a new foundation next to it and place the first block.
I think more than celebrating the past, the project is one of hope and trust towards the future...the belief that it WILL be completed eventually.
Laying the next first block imo is more meaningful to celebrate than placing the last...because if they don't continue, if they don't have hope for the next 1200 years, then is it really worth celebrating the END of trusting in the future?
The error seems to promote a lot of creative ideas, so maybe it actually makes the whole installation better.
Seeing this as someone who was born in 1993 kinda just fills me with a special connection to it.
I think I'll have to go visit this place some day.
i'd wait till 2033.
@@lionhead123 same
Congrats, you're three concrete blocks old
I’m a little over three concrete blocks old.
I was born in 2003 so while its not as special as 1993 its still pretty cool to have each decade milestone in my life be capstoned by one of these blocks. My birthday is in summer so that works out nicely too
I like that there is an error in its creation. The whole monument reminds me of how human we are. We live short lives. We only hope to comprehend what 1000’s of years feels like. We are simple creatures who celebrate the placement of concrete blocks… AND all of that to top it off with our unavoidable human imperfection - the miscalculation.
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.
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
That's what I was thinking + having the crown be the same volume as each individual block
Yes, that's what I thought too. Not very exciting, but it'll do!
121th? Flunked out in 2nd grade I see!
i was thinking similar like a capstone like ancient pyramids had. a "mini pyramid" if you will. the final stone during the final celebration and doesn't change the overall concept and acts as the ending to the adventure.
yes, I was thinking the same thing. They just add a special cap that is a pyramid shaped stone on the top that spans the 2x2 on top for the 121st stone.
The “apologies to the music nerds” in the description is a real nice addition
Yeah 😆 I was very glad to see that too! That's definitely a Soprano Sax lol
After installing the 120 block, we can start coloring or decorating a block each month. It will take 120 months, which is 10 years. It would be cool to invite some artists who will try to repeat the paintings of the past on the blocks according to the time of their installation.
that’s assuming after 1200 years people will still bother to do stuff like this
- One block equals one decade!
- So you are gonna put the first block only after the first decade passes, right?
- ...
- Right?
A fun solution would have been to make the blocks in place : build the frame at beginning of the decade, pour the concrete, and let it cure for the whole decade.
Then remove frame, build next frame, etc.
Then, each block would have really represented each decade !
That's genius. @@vbregier
Or the first year could’ve been just the concrete base 🤷
They didn't, that's the issue.
@Timbobs Good point. The base is the first fence post. They just started the first block a decade toooo early.
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?
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.
It is easy, the last celebration is going to tear it all down
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.
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
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
A few years down the road "Meh, we need to build an industrial site."
it wont finish... the first blocks will need to be replaced/restored in a couple of decades anyway and the further time goes the maintentance will just increase and cost more money.
"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
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"
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)
They should add another block on top
"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!
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.
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 think they should just put one more block on the top at the end
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.
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
We could put a Pyramide as a roof up there as a last bit.