[doubleunplussed]

One problem with this explanation of how it might work is that it appears to know far more than 256 things - though I don't know how many. And even if it did know only that many, how do you construct the set of questions?

Actually programming the logic once you know it is the easy bit, it's constructing the dataset of answers and questions in the first place.

[kd5bjo]

This approach allows for 2^256 different things, one for each possible yes/no bitstring.

[doubleunplussed]

Ah yes, apologies. Still, big job to construct the database of what things correspond to what answers to the questions - and to choose the questions.