Toby Ord on the two senses of how many bits a photograph can communicate
tobyordoxford · x · 2026-09-07
Philosopher Toby Ord discusses his short piece with Ryan Greenblatt and bubblingcreek about two distinct senses of "communicating information" via photography. A counterexample: photographing four Bitcoin seed phrases on paper clearly conveys 512 bits — more than 340 — under the common-sense meaning. Ord agrees there is a sense in which that is true, but notes you cannot communicate 512 freely chosen bits with a single photo; the debate contrasts everyday vs. controlled senses of information transfer, arguing one is neglected.
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