Re:Stanisław Lem's vision of artificial life
by ajuc on Thursday November 30, 2023 @04:25PM
(#38479371)
We're talking encodings not platonic ideals.
Forget PI. Let's take 1337. Or is it MCCCXXXVII?
Is it 2 or 1.(9)? Or 10 (binary)? Different encodings, same number. Some encodings are just less optimal than others.
Same with text. Is the poem in utf-8 and utf-16 a different poem? What if you zip the file? These are just encodings, and there's no point ignoring the good ones (which for non-random strings are usually programs).
Forget PI. Let's take 1337. Or is it MCCCXXXVII?
Is it 2 or 1.(9)? Or 10 (binary)? Different encodings, same number. Some encodings are just less optimal than others.
Same with text. Is the poem in utf-8 and utf-16 a different poem? What if you zip the file? These are just encodings, and there's no point ignoring the good ones (which for non-random strings are usually programs).