Toby Ord: describing a dancer's motion is easy, but limiting it to choices he could control is hard
tobyordoxford · x · 2026-09-07
In a discussion with Ryan Greenblatt and bubblingcreek, Toby Ord offers an example: a dancer's complex continuous motion requires a lot of information to describe, but naive descriptions would also permit trajectories he couldn't actually choose given limited control.
He adds that for creation-based art, file size serves as an upper bound on information transmitted — but so does the amount the artist can actually control or choose.
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