this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2026
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Okay! Now we’re finally getting somewhere. I was trying to figure out if you use the computer to get the dog to interact with the abacus or how, and it turns out: no! You can do the factorization with just the computer, just the dog, or just the abacus. In the dog case, he threw a ball until his dog barked 3 times, then 5 times, and claimed this demonstrates the factorization of 15, because 15 is 3*5. The criticism is that, because you choose the number to be factorized, and then do special operations that only work for that particular factorization, all processes that are fine-tuned to produce the correct factors are equally valid, including training your dog to bark a certain number of times.
Yes. Exactly.
Also, heres those two numbers in binary.
15 = 1111
21 = 10101
So, those are special numbers. Its straight up cheating.