3 ms·

As they say, intelligence is prediction is compression is encoding...

• tysam_and 3y ago
  Well, I agree that encoding is compression, at least, but the rest of that statement I do disagree with! It seems to be one of the more common mantras going around right now, though. Which is partially why I advocate for Shannon's theory! It's very clean and bare metal in terms of being related to intelligence, though I think one could build a decent argument for intelligence from info theory.
  • PeterisP 3y ago
    > Well, I agree that encoding is compression, at least, but the rest of that statement I do disagree with! IMHO that Shannon's paper you linked is effectively the initial work for linking prediction with compression, showing how the information transmitted (and the necessity for transmitted information) decreases as you can more accurately predict the likelihoods of the next symbol.
    • tysam_and 3y ago
      Yes, but prediction != compression, and intelligence != prediction! However, prediction can inform compression, but there's necessarily some framework needed to translate the information from prediction<->compression. Perhaps that is too nitpicky, but to me it's like thinking about raw materials (like raw food or whatnot) and how it ends up as a finished product (like cornbread. Corn farming is not cornbread, but there is a semi-clear family of paths from one to the other with its own set of optimizations, rules, and etc). Again, that could be a bit nitpicky on my end depending on how one is viewing it.
      • deleted 3y ago
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