[kijin]

If the mass of information is strictly proportional to how many bits of entropy it contains, it follows that neither interpretation nor (lossless) compression can alter its mass.

There's quite a bit of difference between how we usually think about information and how information theory treats it. There it's all about entropy.

[_carl_jung]

Doesn't the very definition of "lossless" depend on interpretation? If lossy compression alters its mass, but lossless doesn't, doesn't it depend on the interpretation of "lost" information?

As I said to the above poster I don't know much about this, so hope this isn't an off-base question.

[kijin]

Lossless compression preserves entropy. Lossy doesn't.

The meaning of a certain sequence of bits depends on interpretation, of course. But nobody is talking about meaning here, only entropy. For our purpose it wouldn't matter if there were no sentient beings in the universe to attribute any meaning to anything.