This question about the existence of numbers is a pretty old philosophical conundrum, but I ask it for a modern reason:

To the degree that any number on the number line exists, that's the same degree to which every image exists in the space of all possible model outputs.

— jonstokes.(eth|com) (@jonst0kes) September 7, 2022

A few years ago I figured out that it was now possible to create and place into a database every single 500×500 pixel image that could exist with 32-bit color values. It’d take a good bit of computing, several months, and a petabyte or two of storage, but you could do it.

So…did those images already exist? If so, where were they? Now that they exist (if you did the above), what are they exactly? If a photo you create this way matches one pixel-per-pixel that someone else has taken in the real world, who owns the copyright? What does “copyright” even mean here?

Philosophy is all about discussing the “irrelevant” before it moves out into the world. It helps us prepare and understand, even if it offers no final answers. Philosophy was here already, biding its time, waiting for the unbelievable to become the inevitable.