[Brainlag]

256 is the magic number

[acchow]

We need 166 bits to address each atom on Earth uniquely. We won't need to go beyond that until we are interplanetary.

[mrb]

You are assuming each atom represents one bit. But each atom could represent 2^N states (charge, spin, location, etc) in which case you could store 2^(166+N) bits on Earth!

[acchow]

I was referring to addressing each atom individually. Indeed, you could possibly store more than 1 bit of information at each address. Maybe call it an "atombyte".

Similarly in computer RAM, we don't address each "bit" individually but actually each "byte" (8 bits). Or maybe we address each word?

[IncreasePosts]

I guess I'll never be able to individually label my quarks and gluons. Pity.