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by _carl_jung 2338 days ago
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.

1 comments

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.