4980 = 22 × 3 × 5 × 83
After changes we are
4981
More or less the same
4982 = 2 × 47 × 53
Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie
4983
Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie, la la lie la lie
4984 = 23 × 7 × 89
Lie la lie, lie la lie la lie la lie
4985 = 5 x 997
Then I’m laying out my winter clothes
4986
Wait just a minute: Isn’t this similar to Arthur C. Clarke’s story “The Nine Billion Names of God”?
4987, prime again!
And wishing I was gone
[In 13 steps we will be one twohundredth of the way. After a bit over 3 years. Hints at 600 years in total, does not come close to Arthur C. Clarke, does it? Mind to summarize the story?]
ETA: I found it on PDF! We must hurry up, I don’t want to miss that, not even by 600 years!
4988
Going home
4989 = 3 x 1663
Where the New York City winters
4990 = 2 × 5 × 499
Aren’t bleeding me
4991
Leading me
4992 = 27 × 3 × 13
To going home.
4993, prime!
In the clearing stands a boxer
4994 = 2 × 11 × 227
And a fighter by his trade
4495
And he carries a reminder
4496 = 24 x 281
Of ev’ry glove that laid him down
4996 [sic] = 22 × 1249
And cut him till he cried out
I’ll respond with a summary of the story, but will call this post #4986a.
Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Nine Billion Names of God” (1953). Summary from Wikipedia:
In a Tibetan lamasery, the monks seek to list all of the names of God. They believe the Universe was created for this purpose, and that once this naming is completed, God will bring the Universe to an end. Three centuries ago, the monks created an alphabet in which they calculated they could encode all the possible names of God, numbering about 9,000,000,000 (“nine billion”) and each having no more than nine characters. Writing the names out by hand, as they had been doing, even after eliminating various nonsense combinations, would take another 15,000 years; the monks wish to use modern technology to finish this task more quickly.
They rent a computer capable of printing all the possible permutations, and hire two Westerners to install and program the machine. The computer operators are skeptical but play along. After three months, as the job nears completion, they fear that the monks will blame the computer (and, by extension, its operators) when nothing happens. The Westerners delay the operation of the computer so that it will complete its final print run just after their scheduled departure. After their successful departure on ponies, they pause on the mountain path on their way back to the airfield, where a plane is waiting to take them back to civilization. Under a clear night sky they estimate that it must be just about the time that the monks are pasting the final printed names into their holy books. Then they notice that “overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.”
So - don’t try to make an automatic posting bot for this thread!
4997 = 19 x 263 [so easily confused!]
In his anger and his shame