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Or non-hypothetically, integers in Ruby -- 5.methods shows that 5 is an object just like anything else. But then Ruby has been called a modern Smalltalk for this reason.

With the difference that cruffy Smalltalk still has better JITs available.

On the 64 bit VM, we can do better now on the integer front.

Floats are also boxed automagically in a 64-bit entry.

Why do they lose one bit?

Because that bit indicates if it is a normal object or an integer (for 32 bit VM)