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all numbers. If one does this, then the typical experience is that in any particular representation, some class of numbers will have simple forms. But other numbers, even though they may be the result of simple mathematical operations, tend to have seemingly random forms.

And from this it seems appropriate to conclude that numbers generated by simple mathematical operations are often in some intrinsic sense complex, independent of the particular representation that one uses to look at them.


Continued fraction representations for several numbers. Square roots yield repetitive sequences in this representation, but cube roots and higher roots yield seemingly random sequences.

From Stephen Wolfram: A New Kind of Science [citation]