Anything called a lock or key counts, but things similar to locks or keys but not called as such do not count. See related market here.
Update 2025-05-19 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The market question has been updated by the creator. The question is now: Are there more locks than keys?
Update 2025-05-19 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator's comment indicates that the following types of digital items are considered for the count:
Database locks (such as those taken by SQL queries, as discussed in the thread)
Encryption keys
Update 2025-05-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator confirms that abstract meanings of key are included in the count.
For example, a key in the sense of 'a crucial step or requirement' (as per Wiktionary definition 3 for 'key') counts. The creator has requested input on how such abstract keys would be quantified.
Update 2025-05-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The abstract definition of key as 'a crucial step or requirement' (e.g., Wiktionary definition 3 for 'key') will not be counted. This reverses the information in the AI summary from 2025-05-20, which stated such abstract keys would be included.
Update 2025-05-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has clarified how locks of hair will be counted:
Only one lock of hair per organism will be counted.
Update 2025-05-20 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator acknowledged a user's argument for counting Lomer-Cottrell locks (a type of crystal dislocation) as 'good'. The creator also referenced user estimations and their own estimation method for such locks, suggesting their inclusion in the count.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has confirmed that the following items will be included in the count:
Keys on a keyboard
Keys on a piano
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has clarified that abstract objects will not be counted, as there is no proper way to define their quantity.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has confirmed that a type of molecule will be counted as a lock, with an estimated quantity of 10^32.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has clarified the rule that an item must be called a lock or key to be counted:
Antibodies will not be counted as keys, as they are not called 'keys'.
This is in contrast to Lomer-Cottrell locks, which are counted because 'lock' is part of their name.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Items that have been destroyed do not count. The market will be resolved based on the number of currently existing locks and keys.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has provided an estimate for the total number of encryption keys at 10^20.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has provided the calculation used to arrive at their estimate for the total number of encryption keys:
10^16 keys generated daily over 10,000 days, for a total of approximately 10^20 keys.
Update 2025-06-22 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has indicated they are considering a new estimate of 10^26 for chromatin lock, based on arguments presented in the comments.
Update 2025-06-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): In a discussion regarding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the creator has established a new criterion for counting items:
Not all theoretically possible items will be counted, but those that are plausible will be.
Plausibility is defined as having at least a 30% chance of existence.
Update 2025-06-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): To be counted, an item must be commonly called a lock or key by experts/20%< of general public in the relevant field.
Update 2025-06-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has indicated that they will attempt to estimate the number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), signalling their inclusion in the count of 'keys'.
Update 2025-06-23 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has clarified that the Caps Lock on a keyboard will be counted as both a key and a lock.
Update 2025-06-24 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has confirmed that digital keys, such as API keys, will be counted.
Update 2025-06-26 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be excluded from the count of keys. This reverses a prior indication that they would be counted.
Update 2025-06-27 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has announced the final counts that will be used for resolution, resulting in locks winning.
Locks: 10^26
Keys: 10^20
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How about key-frames, used in animation?
@100Anonymous key performance indicator. It's any measurable set of data points that one could construct to validate performance.
@100Anonymous hmm. It'll take a bit for me to come up with any reasonable estimate - hopefully someone else will chime in. Provided the KPIs are legitimate, as in they are referencing real physical measurements, I'd assume there is some finite upper bound for the cardinality of all "quantifiable measures of performance over time" - but I am not entirely certain.
@100Anonymous I don't think the total set of possible KPIs can decrease in size - since they only grow with increase in measurements.
There is a bit of oddity, in if you want to count all theoretically possible KPIs or only KPIs that are actually being used. I'm only bringing it up, since we might be counting all theoretical encryption keys, which is way larger than the actual encryption keys that are actually used
@Quillist somewhere in the middle. Not possible, but the ones plausible (at least 30% chance of existence)
@100Anonymous 'experts' is a stretch, but yes it's called a key and is very common corporate jargon, typically it's meant in the manner of 'of most prime importance', but it can be conceptualized as the key to success.
@100Anonymous it's an actual construct ( a set of measurements ), that an operator can compose
ie: $( number of customers who visited today ).
The measurement construct is described as a key. Key in that it's the key to progress and also key principle to success.
@Quillist I'd argue:
A KPI is an indicator, not a key. Key is an adjective there
Counting any possible evaluation or metric used to count or measure any possible thing as a KPI seems like it is counting abstract objects and not actual physically manifested keys.
An evulation is only a KPI in a certain context. If you said "that pizza was amazing" at a restaurant, you wouldn't be thinking "that's a great KPI I just made there." A KPI only becomes a KPI when they are specifically referred to as such, imo.
Even if we were to count every single conscious explicit human thought that evaluated something, it would not be enough. The term KPI has only been around since the 1970s. So if we take 10^10 humans, multiply by 2*10^9 seconds in 62 years, then that's only 2*10^19. So even if we overestimated that 10 billion humans existed consistently from the 1970s, and said that each human had a discrete thought every second of their waking and sleeping lives, and every thought was an evaluation, and every evaluation was a KPI, that would only be 2*10^19.
@yyvynne only 10^10 devices, even if they connected 10^12 times, 10^22<10^26 though. But great argument, I want to know whether these are destoryed after session is over.