this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
85 points (87.0% liked)

Showerthoughts

30022 readers
1240 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    • 3.1) NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    • 3.2) Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    • 3.3) Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

They're probably the only things that "create" information in the sense that you can always grab another slice. Thank you delicious pi!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 weeks ago (14 children)

Is it actually information? I can give you the number two, but it's not useful information until I also tell you which digit is significant and what the number means. Communicating information is still limited by the speed of light.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Is it actually information?

Yes. For every bit of number pi you get one bit of information.

I can give you the number two

You gave me log2(10) bits of information. Thanks.

but it's not useful information until I also tell you which digit is significant and what the number means.

You are misunderstanding what informatiob is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I can give you √2 which is 16-bits of information as characters. It's also an irrational number. How you express something doesn't change the amount of information is contained in the message.

[–] Snazz 2 points 4 weeks ago

How you express something absolutely does change the amount of information in the message. That’s the foundation of compression.

Bitmap image files tend to be larger than png files, even when they both represent the same image.

1.41421… can be thought of as an expanded form of sqrt(2). In this case, the expansion is to an infinite number of digits.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (11 replies)