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One of the conclusions you can draw from this that I love is that there are exponentially more complex things than there are simple things. The number of unique

One of the conclusions you can draw from this that I love is that there are exponentially more complex things than there are simple things. The number of unique, 'elegant' programs short enough to store in 32 bits is 2^32, but the number of unique, 'elegant' programs you can store in 100 bits is 2^100.

btilly 17y ago
Explain those estimates, please. And do recall that not all programs are elegant.
- benmathes 17y ago
  Not all programs representable by 32 bits are elegant, but of all programs that are both 32 bits long and elegant, there are no more than 2^32 of them. edit: this follows from the uniqueness of each "elegant" program.
  - btilly 17y ago
    You post listed exact counts, not upper bounds.