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blovescoffeeyesterday at 3:26 PM2 repliesview on HN

Not quite, compression enables you to simulate / represent / encode x data with less than x memory.


Replies

stevesimmonsyesterday at 9:31 PM

Only for those inputs that are compressible.

If a compressor can compress every input of length N bits into fewer than N bits, then at least 2 of the 2^N possible inputs have the same output. Thus there cannot exist a universal compressor.

Modify as desired for fractional bits. The essential argument is the same.

qingcharlestoday at 1:56 AM

Would the compressibility of the state of the universe be useful to prove whether we are in a simulation already? (i.e. it is hard to compress data that is already compressed)