There is indeed a largest prime number obtainable by humans, it just cannot be bounded. Consider this. The number of integers ever considered by humans, including computers, are finite. Therefore, the number of primes ever known to man is finite, and one of those are the largest one. Of course, once you have a large number, you can construct an even larger prime. So if you have a bound, you can construct a larger prime, thus the largest prime cannot be bounded. 8-) - K
Slashdot Mirror
There is indeed a largest prime number obtainable by humans, it just cannot be bounded. Consider this. The number of integers ever considered by humans, including computers, are finite. Therefore, the number of primes ever known to man is finite, and one of those are the largest one. Of course, once you have a large number, you can construct an even larger prime. So if you have a bound, you can construct a larger prime, thus the largest prime cannot be bounded. 8-) - K