I think each little decision is throwing another few bits of info. A few bits for deciding how big the mantisa and exponent should be. A few bits for it being a 64 bit float. A few bits for subnormals. A few bits for inf and Nan. A few bits for rounding errors. A bit for −0. And it all adds up. Not that we know how many bits the AI needs. If there is one standard computer architecture that all aliens use, then the AI can hack with very little info. If all alien computers have wildly different architectures, then floats carry a fair bit of info.
I think each little decision is throwing another few bits of info. A few bits for deciding how big the mantisa and exponent should be. A few bits for it being a 64 bit float. A few bits for subnormals. A few bits for inf and Nan. A few bits for rounding errors. A bit for −0. And it all adds up. Not that we know how many bits the AI needs. If there is one standard computer architecture that all aliens use, then the AI can hack with very little info. If all alien computers have wildly different architectures, then floats carry a fair bit of info.