• Ignotum@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    English has an information density of like 1.2 bits per word if i recall correctly
    Those books aren’t just uncompressed, they’re bloated and could be compressed a ton completely losslessly

    A short book written using arithmetic encoding might take a few extra months to read, but think of all the paper you’d be saving!

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 day ago

      they’re bloated and could be compressed a ton completely losslessly

      Spoken like someone who has no concept of art or prose.

      Try compressing a Nabokov novel “losslessly”.

      • Ignotum@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Spoken like someone who has no understanding of what lossless compression is? You can reproduce the exact words of the original

        Also it was a joke, as the books would be effectively impossible to read for a human reader