February 18, 2026
ID-entity crisis goes intergalactic
Cosmologically Unique IDs
Cosmic serial numbers spark a space DMV vs dice-roll fight
TLDR: A tech essay says random, huge-number IDs can be unique enough for the entire universe. Comments erupted: some back pure randomness, others want lineage-tracking IDs, and one physics take claims duplicates only matter if they ever meet—turning it into a space DMV vs dice-roll showdown.
A big-brain essay proposes a simple fix for future space traffic: give every gadget a random, giant-number ID so there’s basically zero chance of duplicates, even across the universe. It even crunches a “heat death of the universe” number—798 bits—like a cosmic barcode. The community? Absolutely lit. Sci‑fi fans showed up waving Becky Chambers quotes and imagining a galaxy-wide Transit Authority, while pragmatists shouted, “Just roll the dice!” and called random IDs the only universal language. One commenter even dubbed them a “golden disk” for cross‑civilization chat. Then the drama: developers confessed they’ve abused UUIDs (universally unique identifiers) by stuffing meaning into them—turning IDs into sneaky mini-databases. Cue the roast: “Stop making your ID do your schema’s job,” replied half the thread. Meanwhile, the provenance crowd argued for deterministic lineage IDs that carry a device’s family tree right inside the number—traceable, audit-friendly, and edgy. Critics worried that’s brittle and creepy. The spiciest twist? A physics mic‑drop: duplicates only matter if the two devices ever meet; thanks to the speed of light, most won’t. Memes exploded: “Your evil ID twin is 3 billion light‑years away, relax.” Between dice-rolls, space DMV fantasies, and lineage detectives, this became the ultimate ID-entity brawl
Key Points
- •Randomly generated IDs allow decentralized assignment with controllable collision probability via bit-size selection.
- •UUIDs (latest version) use 122 random bits to achieve practical uniqueness at large scales.
- •The birthday paradox provides a method to estimate collision likelihood and expected counts before a collision.
- •Reframing the problem: choose ID size based on how many IDs must be created before an expected collision.
- •An extreme upper bound calculation suggests ~798-bit IDs would avoid expected collisions until the universe’s heat death.