User blog comment:Bubby3/Mental torture./@comment-30754445-20170705013215

Cool story :-)

And like almost all mind-related abuse, there is a defense here as well:

The thing is, the torturer here is playing a very cruel trick on you. He is tricking you to think that "visualizing a number" is the same thing as representing it in terms of power towers. And obviously, trying to do that with Graham's Number is a bad idea.

But what's so special about power towers? Why can't we just accept 3↑↑↑↑3 as 3↑↑↑3↑↑↑3 and be done with it? After all, power towers are no less abstract than Knuth arrows. And trying to visualize 3↑↑↑↑3 as a power tower is just as silly as trying to visualize a googol as a sum of 1's...

So next time some googology-crazy sadist catches you in some dark alley, remember: you're free to choose the most practical way to "visualize" the number at any given point. As long as you are familiar with a strong enough notation (which isn't difficult for Graham), you'll be in the clear.