An interesting thread

This thread may be used for conversations about various interesting things. Please use it as such and enjoy. Thank you.

What has this thread got to do with programing? Back to Reddit with you, methinks...

>>2
If programming is something that you consider interesting, then you may make a posting about it in this thread. Otherwise if another topic is interesting to you, you may post about that instead. If no things are interesting, well, then you can post about that as well. Enjoy.

Consider this, for it baffles me. On one hand we have the noble bit, the two-valued quantity, the flag, the truth-value. On the other we have its progeny, the N-bit integer.

The bit by itself seems like the simplest data structure: it's a piece of data and an unit of state, given meaning by the interaction between its generator and consumers. It can also be said to have solid connections to vast academic bodies of research in e.g. information theory. Bits are unavoidable in computing, so they could be regarded fundamental.

But then we have the integer, consisting of a number of bits assigned an order of significance, or just the number of bits set and cleared, a memory address, whatever. Considering that the integer is composed of multiple parts, it would appear to have a stronger claim to being the simplest data structure: there's data (bits) and structure (their sequence).

The question appears to boil down to this: are fundamentals so different as to be distinct from their derivatives altogether?

(this level of abstract shit ain't worth a new thread, by the way.)

Consider this: a pack of wild bits.

Consider this: a pack of wild injective maps from a countable set into the set of bit strings.

>>6
Consider this: the binary representation of the number of this post consists of three repeated digits.

check 'em