Conor McBride asks for a fast proof that $$x = {\left(\pi^\pi\right)}^{\pi^\pi}$$ is not an integer. It would be sufficient to calculate a very rough approximation, to a precision of less than $1,$ and show that $n < x < n+1$ for some integer $n$. But $x$ is large enough ($56$ digits) that that method is not obviously practical without electronic computation tools.
Is there a purely theoretic proof that works with no calculation at all, or is there a calculational argument that would be practical prior to $1950$?
Edit: Let me phrase the question a little differently, as a spur to your mathematical imagination. I go back in time to $1847$ and have lunch with Carl Friedrich Gauss. We are chatting about the developments in $20$th and $21$st-century mathematics, and because I am a horrible person, I mention that $(\pi^\pi)^{\pi^\pi}$ has been proven to be an integer. Gauss is incredulous, but I insist. After I leave, can Gauss convince himself that I am nothing but a troll?
Edit: After I looked back at McBride's original question, I saw to my dismay that he had not asked about $x= (\pi^\pi)^{\pi^\pi}$, but $$y=\pi^{\left(\pi^{\pi^\pi}\right)}$$ which is a rather different animal. The value of $x$ has $57$ decimal digits; the value of $y$ has $10^{57}$ digits. So Alexander Walker's impressive display of direct numerical calculation will avail nothing for deciding that $y$ is not an integer, neither in $1873$ nor in $2013,$ and perhaps not in $2153$ either. ("We should attempt to destroy the aliens.") More powerful theoretical methods will be required. I am posting an additional bounty to see if anyone can suggest anything of that sort; it need not be theory that was available in the $19$th century.
Best Answer
I think this calculation would have been doable in 1873, as follows:
(1) Compute $\log \pi$ to $60$ digits. For this, we begin with the expansion
$$\log \pi = \log \left(\frac{\pi}{22/7}\right)+\log 2 + \log 11-\log 7$$
and take full advantage of the fact that the logarithm tables of small integers were known to great precision. As for the logarithm of $\pi/(22/7) \approx 1.00041$, the Taylor series for the logarithm spits out $60$ digits after only $17$ terms. (Surprisingly, this exact analysis has been done on MSE before.)
(2) Compute $(\pi+1)\log \pi$ to $60$ digits. This is no big deal, given our value for $\log \pi$ from (1), since $\pi$ was known (to Gauss, no less!) to at least $100$ digits back in 1844. For reference, this value is
$$ \approx 4.7410048855785583722294291029994190930164741026691888020108672.$$
(The multiplication will of course be a pain, as it requires around $1800$ flops. Nevertheless, this computation would likely be delegated to a lesser mathematician. The Wikipedia article on Zacharias Dase (a temporary assistant to Gauss) puts these computations into perspective:
(3) Exponentiate the product, again to $60$ places. Using just the series $$e^z = \sum_{k=0}^\infty \frac{z^k}{k!}$$ such a calculation would require $77$ terms. For this reason, we instead calculate $$e^{4.741} \approx 114.54869311801681310751748724665811195370661075419665168411647;$$ $$e^{0.0000048\cdots} \approx 1.0000048855904928305900123833767696556988185632721564706179420.$$ The latter approximation requires a mere $10$ terms of the exponential Taylor series to achieve $60$ digits, a commitment of around 18000 flops. By Gauss's metric, we might expect a skilled mathematician to complete this task in just over seven hours.
The prior calculation could be done in one of two ways: directly, at a cost of another $18000$ flops (e.g. $77$ consecutive multiplications of a $4$-digit and a $60$-digit number); or by calculating $\mathrm{exp}(4)$ and $\mathrm{exp}(.741)$ independently (a slight time savings, I believe, even after the final multiplication). Of course, now it just takes another $1800$ flops to multiply these numbers to $60$ places.
Note: In hindsight, it appears that calculating the triple product $$e^4 e^{3/4}e^{-9/1000}$$ may expedite this most recent step.
In case you've lost track, we now know the value of $$e^{(\pi +1)\log \pi}=\pi^{\pi+1}$$ to $60$ digits, all within a day or two of starting our calculations.
(4) Multiply $\log \pi$ and $\pi^{\pi+1}$ to $60$ digits. This step is easy, given steps (1) and (3). This value is $$\approx 131.12795303153615589452803943707399841542170349230159549341360.$$ Of course, this value is also the logarithm of $(\pi^\pi)^{\pi^\pi}$, so it remains to:
(5) Exponentiate the term from (4). Since it worked out so well in (3), we'll again split our exponential into a product of simpler terms. Here, we luck out - since the binary expansion of $131.127953\ldots$ begins as $$10000011.001000001100000\cdots_2,$$ the partial approximation $131+1/8$ is surprisingly accurate: to within $\approx 0.002953$. The exponential of this remainder can be made accurate to over $60$ digits with a mere $18$ terms (i.e. $32000$ flops).
Secondly, we compute $e^{131}$ to $60$ digits, using iterated multiplication and an approximation of $e$ to $62$ digits ($205$ digits were known to William Shanks in 1871). Since it suffices here to successively compute $$e^2,e^4,e^8,e^{16},e^{32},e^{64},e^{128},$$ this step can be done in less than $15000$ flops. Thirdly, we compute $e^{1/8}$ to $60$ digits using three applications of Newton's method for the square root (another $6000$ flops). We find a value of $$ \approx 887455172183124295874631455225434602688412866765466125005\color{red}{.16},$$ a non-integer.
All said and done, I would be surprised if this calculation took much longer than a week. At the same time, I stress that this problem would have been barely doable in that era. If twice the number of digits were required, for example, this work may very well have taken the better part of a year.