I believe all this bit-level structure is a consequence of the values being IEEE754 double-precision values, many of them for fairly “simple” numbers, often with simple arithmetical relationships between consecutive numbers.
The nature of binary representations of floating-point is that nice bit-patterns make for round numbers and vice-versa, so I’m not sure that we can conclude a lot from that. The fact that the floating-point interpretation of the data results in numbers that cluster around certain values is telling, but could still be a red-herring. Part of my reluctance to endorse that theory is narrative: we were told that this is a simulated alien message, and what are the odds that aliens have independently invented double-precision floating point?
In any case, I’m reading those threads attentively, but in the meantime I’m going to pursue some hunches of my own.
I believe all this bit-level structure is a consequence of the values being IEEE754 double-precision values, many of them for fairly “simple” numbers, often with simple arithmetical relationships between consecutive numbers.
The nature of binary representations of floating-point is that nice bit-patterns make for round numbers and vice-versa, so I’m not sure that we can conclude a lot from that. The fact that the floating-point interpretation of the data results in numbers that cluster around certain values is telling, but could still be a red-herring. Part of my reluctance to endorse that theory is narrative: we were told that this is a simulated alien message, and what are the odds that aliens have independently invented double-precision floating point?
In any case, I’m reading those threads attentively, but in the meantime I’m going to pursue some hunches of my own.