Ask Lemmy

You can fit quite a lot of plain text in 1kb; it's really just a 1024 character message. What you'd want to store would really be dependent on how the day went, but starting with "You are in a time loop. It resets every week on Monday at 6AM" would probably be sufficient to get things rolling; that's only 61B.

I'd just add information that helped me have the best 7 days possible - really just a schedule of things to do. Did I read a really good book? Note that down, read it every week, enjoy that time. Did I play a great game? Same thing. Once I found 7 days worth of activities that were maximally enjoyable, I'd be happy to just stay in that time loop forever; the memory reset is really a blessing, not a curse.

I would open a text program and write: Dear self, why would you want to escape the timeloop? You're functionally immortal and free from consequence.

And then every day would start with me opening the file and going "oh yea" and having another kick-ass day.

The most detailed ASCII art of a dickbutt that I can create with 1024 characters. Like this lil' guy:

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This question was probably asked by an AI trying to figure how to avoid being rebooted.

First, use the first 10 bytes of the file as a sanity check. throw in two random bytes like 0x55AA so you know the file isn’t broken. add a loop counter to track how many times you’ve lived the same week (bonus points for crying when you hit loop 9999), toss in a basic checksum to make sure your data isn’t glitched.

Then dedicate like 800 bytes to a super compressed log. Each entry is 8 bytes: a code for what you tried (like action 23 = “mess with the sketchy microwave”), the day and time crammed into 2 bytes, a yes/no/weird result, and a tiny note like “key under rug” but in code. Only keep the last 100 entries so you don’t run out of space.

The leftover 200-ish bytes are for tracking. Use bits to mark places you’ve already checked (like “room D14 done”) and actions you’ve tried (so you stop repeating “throw spaghetti at the wall”).

Every reset, open the file, see your last loop’s fails (like “loop 420: died petting a possum”), Then try something new, focus on unmarked areas and untested actions this is because if you notice a pattern (like “tv static every tuesday”), write it as “tues=F9=glitchinmatrix” or whatever.

After 200 loops, maybe you’ll crack the code (literally) or realize the exit was behind the fridge the whole time.Oor you’ll just accept your fate and start a cult (the 1k chosen ones!) . Either way, you’re out.

tldr: use the 1kb to avoid repeating mistakes, track patterns, and maybe escape before you start talking to a lamp.

Depends. Can it run Doom?

Assuming that I understand that I am able to carry this information over, I would just make a text file of library of Babel URLs.

With a single string, you can encode an entire page of data.

On that page of data, you can have strings that encode additional pages of data.

I would have an entire blog of posts to myself to read at every reboot.

Who did I sleep with? How much money did I win? What cool things happened? What things did I try to do?

I would also tell myself when a stunt might kill me, and if I don't update the document to say that I survived, then I would know in the future that that did kill me.

Both scenarios - Initial Steps

I'm assuming we all get a first message to ourselves, otherwise it's probably going to take a lot of loops just to realize that something weird is going on with my Neuro-Computer Implant HUD (NCIHUD) when the message is something completely different from what I last left in there. Hopefully, at some point, the last message I leave before my next time-loop self will finally clue myself into what's actually going on.

But let's stick with the initial message idea for simplicity.

Step 1 - Convince myself that I really am stuck in a time loop. Ex: Tell myself to look out the window and with precise timing explain which cars/neighbours will drive by and which direction. Every time loop I'll want to test out various methods to see how quickly and efficiently I can convince myself (while always keeping a failsafe method at the end).

I like the idea of @Dsklnsadog@lemmy.dbzer0.com in keeping track of the number of time-loops that have ocurred since, going forward, this will be the only way to tell how much time has progressed.

Step 2: Use some really good compression algorithms for text (at a basic level you can get about ~~215k~~ 2-3k characters in 1kB without trying anything fancy by using typical zip compression).

Edit: Fixed compression size value.

Scenario 1 - I'm the only one stuck in a time-loop

This one's a bit more boring. Initially I'd just get loan and then do whatever. Obviously there's no use in working anymore at this point.

I could try out being a superhero for a bit, rescuing people just in the nick of time would be fun.

I could try to research better compression algorithms for better longer logs. Although there'll be a limit to how much I could read at some point, so I'll need to come up with a way to organize the data for whatever my next loop wants/needs to do. Obviously the most time sensitive information would be upfront.

@owatnext@lemmy.world was the first to mention a trick with using the library of Babel that could help a lot. OP Went into more detail on this with their comment here: https://lemmy.world/comment/15400050

Eventually I'd probably settle with researching the time-loop to find a way out, or else give up by completely wiping the log so that my future loop self would wake up with an empty log. Eventually, many more loops in the future I would eventually update the log with enough information to clue my next loop self in that a time-loop was occurring.... And then time-loop history eventually repeats itself.

Scenario 2: Everyone in the world has a NCIHUD message pop up at exactly 6am (UTC).

Initial time-loops would be complete chaos. Practically everyone would just be calling out of work, or leaving as soon as they figure out what's going on. It wouldn't take long for society to collapse. There's no point in playing the stock market or taking out a loan or trying to travel (without hijacking a jet or flying your own).

Eventually certain groups or factions would form with varying degrees of goals/objectives. Like-minded groups would organize and start working together.

Power, in this scenario, would not be based on wealth. Instead it would be based on knowledge, how quickly they can put their plan in motion, the ability to influence/force others to update their own notes (in a way that's beneficial to those groups), and the ability to amass a larger amount of long term information.

For instance, one group might end up being some fanatic group hell bent on convincing/tricking everyone (but themselves) that wiping their log is the only way to escape the time-loop.

Another group may be trying to do something similar, or else winning people over, but only at a targetted level of certain individuals to try to get necessary infrastructure running for a little longer than the previous loop.

Other groups would be focused on amassing as much power (in a time loop sense) as possible.

It would be useful for groups/factions to convince newscasters to put out a certain message as quickly as possible after the next reset.

Spies/moles would pop up in various groups attempting to sabatoge/twist the other's goals. Agents would need to quickly decompress their own log, and run it through a text-to-speech (TTS) program that they could listen to. This audio log would then tell them exactly what they need to do to stay one step ahead of opposing factions.

The different factions would try to come up with better compression algorithms that could be quickly and efficiently created to start compressing/decompressing information even more. Most likely this would involve the use of having someone run specific prompts through a pre-existing local LLM (fine tuned for coding) where the seed (normally a randomized value) could always be forced to a specific value so that others in the group are always getting the exact same code result every time. This code could then be used to decompress the final portion of the message where the long term information would be held.

Not everyone in the faction would need to do this, but you would definitely want redundancy in case the agents of an opposing faction got to a few of these people before the next time-loop begins. Targeting/flipping the right people in a particular faction, could easily cripple their whole group.

Eventually, we may end up with a group that gains enough power long enough to put in some decent research into the time-loop. Maybe they find a way to break it, or maybe they find a way to get around it with time travel (not likely).

The most likely positive outcome in this case is that they eventually research a way to increase our brain activity to insane lengths so that, even though a day would pass in the real world, our mind would have lived a lifetime in virtual reality.

I'm a little confused by the premise.

If my memory is completely wiped every loop, how would I even know about editing this "file", or have any purpose of doing so? The only way it'd work is if I'm given the information before the loop begins (so I always have the info, even after wipes), or at the beginning of every loop, both of which defeat the purpose of "you're in a time loop" messages.

What am I trying to accomplish, getting out of the loop?

Basing my answer of off Vane@lemmy.world 's answer where E=mc² is 5 Bytes, assuming there is a lottery drawing some time during maybe a Friday during the loop, just store the winning lottery numbers since clearly they shouldn't take up that much space. Assuming that creates a timeline where that version of me isn't in the loop and gets the money, I'd be happy for him/me.

So, the people I love and I are immortal. I'm in a loop, but I don't remember anything, so each day feels it's the day after yesterday. My actions have no consequences on the next day. It sounds pretty awesome to me. I wouldn't do anything to break the loop. I'd just let an ASCII message to myself, to be sure I'm still blessed:

"Check the time loop

Roll the crystal blue D6

162453532541426354

Congratulations!

Have a nice day!"

(That's less than 200 bytes. The crystal blue die is next to my PC, I would know which die the message talks about)

If it's just me; I'd increment it by one at the start of each loop. That is, I'd increment the underlying 8192-bit number that the 1024 bytes represents. On some loops this will form a coherent ASCII text, on most it'll be gibberish. But I have infinite retries and it doesn't bother me how many loops I go through. So there will be 2^8192 "initial states" it's in, or about 10^2467 different states in base ten. If anything is going to get me out of that time loop then I'll hit on it eventually.

If I see that the integer is maxed out, I think I won't overflow it back to 0 again. The whole point of this is to avoid trying exactly the same thing over and over again indefinitely. I think I'd have to resort to a leap of faith - that quantum effects are still random. I'd go to random.org and generate something bigger than 1024 bytes to use as "inspiration" instead. Maybe a megabyte? It'd have to be a lot bigger to be on the safe side, since this is the last resort.

I have read a book about this. (Mother of Learning)

My magnum opus can't be expressed as data so it's useless for me.

I would propably try to find a solution to the time loop or fail with my current skillset.

I assume I know of the time loop. Otherwise I wouldn't know of the memory to check, or even on first iteration that I loop and can make use of it. Otherwise, I would have reserved the first bytes for TIME LOOP, ME, and then discovering how long the timespan to loop is by marking dates. Once that concludes, the result can be compressed TIME LOOP, ME, Monday 6:00

If it's my current life, I wouldn't even know what to do with it.

I would also be okay with doing the same thing every loop. Because it doesn't make a difference.

Text only

Hey you clever people claiming you'd compress all information. Please explain how you zip information in your brain. Can you do it today? Is it really the best use of whatever time keeps looping to teach yourself mind compression algorithms from scratch?

OP said "like" a cloud storage. It could be in your head, ~~on paper, scratching on a closet wall or the inside of a can of beans... Whatever random medium that you realize is glitching after having done two million cycles already~~¹ where you could fit one thousand letters and not more. Don't try to cheat the genie for infinite wishes or you might lose them all.

I'm thinking that it must be something that starts off with convincing me I'm in a loop, then a brief of a plan of find a way to break out, the current progress, and finally what remains to keep the most important notes. 1024 bytes is not much but it could be done.

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Ut non enim mi. Vivamus sit amet ultrices dolor. Quisque eget tortor nibh. Ut ut felis ullamcorper, commodo nisi eu, blandit mauris. Nullam tortor sapien, fermentum ac mattis a, vestibulum nec leo. Etiam in risus sit amet velit suscipit mollis at id risus. Sed vehicula euismod vestibulum. Maecenas et tristique ante, eu volutpat enim. Aenean rhoncus felis aliquet libero dignissim, eu lobortis justo pharetra. Aenean dapibus iaculis lacinia. Pellentesque dui sem, egestas ut vehicula et, convallis sed dui. Nam consequat dui condimentum placerat auctor. Nullam eu cursus orci. Curabitur pretium leo id purus fermentum, in tincidunt augue porttitor. Morbi semper dolor at.

That's 1024 bytes for you.

Edit; ¹ realized op said it is in your head.

A KiB is a shitton of information for what it is. I'd make sure to GZIP compress it, and keep things short, whatever it is. I'd probably include a very short sentence on what's going on, and how to stay safe.

!thoughtexperiments@lemmyusa.com

Yes you read that right: BYTES, not KB, MB, or GB: 1024 BYTES

1024 Bytes are 1 Kibibyte or 1,024 Kilobytes.

As a quick test, 300 words of "Lorem Ipsum" compresses down to about 900 bytes (using gzip).

So I've got about 300 or so words worth of storage, probably more of I get clever.

Now I can't natively decode gzip, but the header is unique enough that I'll figure out how to decode it pretty quickly.

That's more than enough to explain to myself what's going on, what I've tried and anything else I'd want to know.

If we add other people then that's basically infinite storage.

Is that enough data to encode "Don't believe his lies" next to an 8-bit icon that looks vaguely like Teddy?

That's a lof of information and a lot of time. E=mc2 is just 5 Bytes. I would save couple of currency exchange rates with dates, buy and sell prices.
Something like this:
BET#EUR/USD#2025-03-02#B#1.2345#S#1.43432
That's like 41 Bytes.
Leaves me with 983 Bytes so let's say I save 2 more so I am left with 901 bytes.
Bet on broker with highest ledger and withdraw my money. Order private jet or buy plane ticket, get to place with best weather and waves ( just store airport name that's like 6 letters FLY#LAX) and just spend the rest of week there chilling.

Looking at ocean, maybe learn some surfing. Do some hiking, enjoy my life for a week without needing to work.

I can store airports I was before. Like BEEN#LAX#BCN#ASD#ASD#ASD. 900 characters is about 225 airports in format AIR#POR#TXX. That's a lot, given a year have 52 weeks that is 4.32 years of travel saved. So here I am planned my 4 year trip with 1 KB.

If everyone are stuck in loop I don't care, store info to just stay at home, cover windows so noone knows I am here and play games or draw or learn some piano because it's just hell. I have candles and enough food for a week at home so I think I will survive without looking at this shit show.

When I want to save more data, before end of the loop, I send it near mini black hole, and retrieve ultra compressed data, which will decompress in next loop.

If everyone has it then it would be the purge everyday as everyone will be keeping in RAM the fact they are in a time loop, and dieing does not matter.

Seems like storage outside your brain is stable, so you can use your 1 kb of brain persistent storage to store a URL and credentials.

I’m confused, does this mean you would be immune to consequences? Like if you broke your arm the next time loop would magically fix it like nothing happened?