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If the data file is truly random, then there is no decompression program + compressed file that would be smaller than the original random file. That's the enti
by ghshephard 14y ago
If the data file is truly random, then there is no decompression program + compressed file that would be smaller than the original random file. That's the entire point.
- haberman 14y agoI'm not saying you could! I am only rebutting your earlier line of reasoning. IF you could write an algorithm that would compress a specific block of random data by any non-zero percentage, and IF you can make the original random data arbitrarily large, THEN the overall size of the code to implement this algorithm would not matter, because you could amortize it over an arbitrarily large random data file. However I am not claiming that such an algorithm to compress a specific block of random data exists! However other people are arguing that this is indeed theoretically possible: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5025527 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5025527
- cncool 14y agoWhat if the rng generates a file with massive redundancy by chance. Doesn't make it any less "truly random."