3 ms·
I think the only sane approach is to apply a Kolmogorov-shaded Occam's Razor, and select, from the set of possible sequences which fit the pattern, the one whic
by jameshart 9y ago
I think the only sane approach is to apply a Kolmogorov-shaded Occam's Razor, and select, from the set of possible sequences which fit the pattern, the one which has the simplest generating function.
- CamperBob2 9y agoThat can be tricky in itself, though. 1, 2, 3, 4, .... might be a sequence of positive integers, or it might be a subset of pseudo-random digits emitted by a maximal-length shift register sequence. Someone recently pointed out to me that if you were designing hardware to (e.g.) refresh all memory locations in a system, or otherwise visit a set of 2^n sequential locations in no particular order, then using a maximal-length shift register of the appropriate width is actually simpler than a 'simple' adder or subtractor. That could be seen as a literal interpretation of Kolmogorov complexity.