Hashing the Universe

Posted Nov 2, 2025 | ~1 minute read

According to some very lazy research I just did, the estimated number of particles in the observable universe is ${10}^{96}$. That's a 97-digit number. Have a look:

1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Even though that's an unfathomably large number (imagine having to count to it), it's not that long – it barely fills two lines of text on my screen.

If you could assign a unique natural number (or hash) to every particle in the known universe you'd never need more than 97 digits to do it.

If we change the base from 10 to 64, ${10}^{96}$ items is fewer than ${64}^{54}$. That means you never need more than 54 characters to assign a unique base 64 hash to every particle in the known universe.

That's an incredibly short string of text for such a big feat. Here's a sample I made by mashing my keyboard 54 times:

09m84COSM84wf897hos_t83740FW3M-8tdocs8374tyvsc9nc3b1nt

In theory, this could be the URL of a random particle in the universe. Hopefully, it's one close by.