Those “meaningless” tokens aren’t only used in one place, however. If you had a bunch of other facts including the tokens involved, like “waves produce interference patterns when they interact” and “light produces interference patterns when it interacts”, then you can regenerate “light is waves” if it is lost.
Similarly, while “happiness is a state of mind” is not enough to define happiness, a lot of other facts about it certainly would. The fact that it is a state of mind would also let us apply facts we know about states of mind, giving us even more information about happiness.
Those “meaningless” tokens aren’t only used in one place, however. If you had a bunch of other facts including the tokens involved, like “waves produce interference patterns when they interact” and “light produces interference patterns when it interacts”, then you can regenerate “light is waves” if it is lost.
Similarly, while “happiness is a state of mind” is not enough to define happiness, a lot of other facts about it certainly would. The fact that it is a state of mind would also let us apply facts we know about states of mind, giving us even more information about happiness.