Toby Ord: a photograph can communicate at most ~340 bits of information
tobyordoxford · x · 2026-09-07
In a debate with Ryan Greenblatt, Toby Ord argues the photography example isn't 'cheating': choosing between two photos conveys exactly one bit, and in the real world it's very hard to communicate more than 340 bits by taking and sharing a photograph. He adds that a tiny fraction of gibberish long sequences really do carry only small amounts of information if deterministically communicable via short messages.
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