[joshuamorton]

I don't know that I follow

> is a crude heuristic which is that "there is nothing special about base b

In this context. Imagine the stronger statement, for all bases b, sqrt(2) is not normal in base b. This is base-independent, and we know one base for which it is true (the irrational base sqrt(2), where it's 10). I assume this has something do with restricting b. This argument sounds reasonable for integer or rational bases, but not for noncomputable bases (where presumably sqrt(2) becomes non-computable, how does that work?)

Obviously if we restrict to integer/rational bases, I follow that argument.