Assume that I am trying to use reference values to evaluate an analysis of an unknown sample in order to determine what the nature of the sample is and the attribute value is an 8-bit string of binary categories where 1 represents the presence of an attribute and 0 is the absence. let us assume that number is 0111 1111. Because this scenario only allows for the indicator to show whether a attribute is present and not how many conditions with the attribute are present, that indicator does not represent a unique number but instead represents the set of all sets that are sets of 8-bit values whose union equals 0111 1111.
This means that 0111 1111 is a set and, for example, the set of "0110 1011, 0101 1001, and 0001 0100" is a valid subset as well.
To get at what I am getting at, imagine a lightbox with 8 cylindrical holes parallel to the axis of light tavel. Now if we made filter cards that blocked off the light for the slots where there is a 1 for each 8-bit attribute code. if I added the set of three codes to the lightbox and you observed it along the axis of the light visual you see would be indisquishable from the image generated by the code card for 0111 1111 (or any other set of codes whose union is 0111 1111). The closest thing I can think of that behaves somewhat similarly is a bit net mask. But I don't think they work the same per se.
In any case, this is something that would be helpful for me to explain for a paper I am writing but I can't think of what the concept would be called.