Max Cohen would have found significance in the pattern.
For some reason, today was a day the regularly touched on mathematics. When I took my son to his piano lesson, a mathematics professor was working on a paper in the dining room. In the evening, I watched BBC4’s Mind Games, which is hosted by mathematician Marcus du Sautoy (his Music of the Primes, about the Riemann hypothesis, is a Davos Newbies recommended book).
I then watched Pi, a resolutely bizarre film which I can highly recommend. It’s about a number theorist, Max Cohen, who is determined to find the mathematical pattern behind stock market movements and — ultimately — the structure of everything in our world.
He does find the crucial number, which has 216 digits, but the problem is understanding the number, not just finding it. Well worth seeking out on DVD.