A coin flip is the best example of a random event. Yet, almost always you get close to 50 tails out of a 100 tosses. Closer to 50,000 tails when it's a 100,000 tosses. The number of tails isn't random. But each flip is. There are people that believe that things happen for a reason (not random) and people that believe that there is no reason to existence (random) I think it is not that simple. Maybe each event in my life is random in isolation. But there is purpose hidden in there. Maybe it's just my brain recognising patterns. But I say "recognising" and not "making up".
And I think that's beautiful.
Pattern recognition and compression
Speaking of pattern recognition, I have been reading about modern compression algorithms. Almost all of them are based on the idea of finding patterns in the data and encoding them in a way that they can be reconstructed. The more patterns you can find, the better the compression. Which means that data that is compressed to the maximum extent possible will have no patterns and it will be truly random. Consistently random. I want to raise a question here. Which of the two has meaning? The original uncompressed data, or the compressed data that is entirely random gibberish? You could say that they both have the same amount of information. But that wasn't the question. I believe that only the uncompressed data has meaning. That does not mean that the compressed data is inferior in any way. It is actually superior in the sense that it is the comprehension of the meaning original data. It does not have meaning, but it is a representation of the understanding.
I'll try to explain why I say that. I am going to make a few claims and explain my logic behind them:
- Pattern recognition is comprehension.
- Comprehended data is also compressed.
Pattern recognition is comprehension
Comprehension or understanding is the ability to make sense of information. To find meaning in data. This is also an ability to corelate the data to past experiences. Isn't that what pattern recognition is? When you comprehend something, you recognise familiar patterns in order to make decisions. If you read a sign that has a right arrow on the road, you know there is a right turn coming up because you know what a right arrow is and you know that roads have turns.
Comprehended data is also compressed
When you understand something, you don't remember every single detail about it. You remember the important parts. The patterns you recognised. The meaning. You remember the story. You remember the direction. You remember the curves. You remember the feeling. The data that matters. The data that is compressed.
Conclusion
If the above claims are true, then one could argue that the ability to compress is an important prerequisite for the ability to comprehend. This implies that, one of the reasons we are able to comprehend the world around us is because our memory is finite. Because we have limited memory, we are forced to compress the data we recieve. This compression results in comprehension.
And I think Tha's Beautiful