• FooBarrington@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    1 day ago

    I also don’t have 10 fingers. That doesn’t make any sense - my hands are not numbers!

    Ooooor “bits” has a meaning beyond what you assume, but it’s probably just science that’s stupid.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        You say “we don’t think in bits because our brains function nothing like computers”, but bits aren’t strictly related to computers. Bits are about information. And since our brains are machines that process information, bits are also applicable to those processes.

        To show this, I chose an analogy. We say that people have 10 fingers, yet our hands have nothing to do with numbers. That’s because the concept of “10” is applicable both to math and topics that math can describe, just like “bits” are applicable both to information theory and topics that information theory can describe.

        For the record: I didn’t downvote you, it was a fair question to ask.

        I also thought about a better analogy - imagine someone tells you they measured the temperature of a distant star, and you say “that’s stupid, you can’t get a thermometer to a star and read the measurement, you’d die”, just because you don’t know how one could measure it.

          • scratchee@feddit.uk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            11
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 day ago

            Bits are also a unit of information from information theory. In that context they are relevant for anything that processes information, regardless of methodology, you can convert analogue signals into bits just fine.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 day ago

            Maybe try looking into the topic instead of confidently repeating your wrong assertions? You’re literally pulling a “my hand is not a number!” right now.

            Just because you have a limited understanding of a unit, doesn’t mean that unit is only applicable to what you know. Literally the star example I brought up.

              • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                17 hours ago

                Ah, so you just choose to ignore information you don’t already know? What a rational thing to do. You’re not anti-intellectual at all.

                Or are you seriously trying to gaslight everyone into believing Shannon entropy doesn’t exist?