Ask HN: Is data representation a manifestation of the uncertainty pricipal?

[brianclements]

One of the big foundational insights that chapter 2 of SICP gave to me was the separation between data, and it's representation. It is important as a programming concept but also as a philosophical one. And the first thing that popped up in my mind upon this insight was how similar it was to my (novice) understanding of the Uncertainty Principal in physics.

Let me elaborate. So the Uncertainty Principle "assert[s] a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables, such as position x and momentum p, can be known simultaneously."[1]

In a way, a datum, lets say the quantity "2", that is not being used, or coerced into a specific form in any way (string, number, function, list) also exhibits varying probabilities of being one form or another simultaneously. When you try to represent that data when you set it, use it, whatever, you coerce it into a form, like "wave function collapse". It's stored as binary, mapped as hex, labeled as a variable, represented as whatever forms your language is enabled with (string, symbol, int, float, etc.) and every step of the way, each representation has its various actions that can be done to it. Anyone else have similar insights?

Anyway, I would love more opinion/insight or other reading material on some of the more philosophical insights of programming languages computation theory in this line of thought that come to your minds. Thanks!

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle