Re:Demystifying Tupper's Formula
by userbinator on Tuesday May 23, 2023 @12:10AM
(#36039719)
The meaning of digital data depends entirely on its interpretation. You can interpret a string of bits as an integer, a bitmap, machine instructions, text, etc. Once you have that idea firmly in mind, Tupper's formula doesn't feel any more surprising than e.g. the fact that the PDF spec is itself a PDF, or a physical book describing the process of bookbinding. It's self-referential, but not quite a quine.
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I think this is unnecessarily harsh.
After all, what we call reality is just our brains interpreting data. That doesn't make realliity less amazing.