18,586 research outputs found
An Algorithmic Approach to Information and Meaning
I will survey some matters of relevance to a philosophical discussion of
information, taking into account developments in algorithmic information theory
(AIT). I will propose that meaning is deep in the sense of Bennett's logical
depth, and that algorithmic probability may provide the stability needed for a
robust algorithmic definition of meaning, one that takes into consideration the
interpretation and the recipient's own knowledge encoded in the story attached
to a message.Comment: preprint reviewed version closer to the version accepted by the
journa
Zeno machines and hypercomputation
This paper reviews the Church-Turing Thesis (or rather, theses) with
reference to their origin and application and considers some models of
"hypercomputation", concentrating on perhaps the most straight-forward option:
Zeno machines (Turing machines with accelerating clock). The halting problem is
briefly discussed in a general context and the suggestion that it is an
inevitable companion of any reasonable computational model is emphasised. It is
hinted that claims to have "broken the Turing barrier" could be toned down and
that the important and well-founded role of Turing computability in the
mathematical sciences stands unchallenged.Comment: 11 pages. First submitted in December 2004, substantially revised in
July and in November 2005. To appear in Theoretical Computer Scienc
Quantum Kolmogorov Complexity Based on Classical Descriptions
We develop a theory of the algorithmic information in bits contained in an
individual pure quantum state. This extends classical Kolmogorov complexity to
the quantum domain retaining classical descriptions. Quantum Kolmogorov
complexity coincides with the classical Kolmogorov complexity on the classical
domain. Quantum Kolmogorov complexity is upper bounded and can be effectively
approximated from above under certain conditions. With high probability a
quantum object is incompressible. Upper- and lower bounds of the quantum
complexity of multiple copies of individual pure quantum states are derived and
may shed some light on the no-cloning properties of quantum states. In the
quantum situation complexity is not sub-additive. We discuss some relations
with ``no-cloning'' and ``approximate cloning'' properties.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, final and extended version of quant-ph/9907035, with
corrections to the published journal version (the two displayed equations in
the right-hand column on page 2466 had the left-hand sides of the displayed
formulas erroneously interchanged
Algorithmic Complexity for Short Binary Strings Applied to Psychology: A Primer
Since human randomness production has been studied and widely used to assess
executive functions (especially inhibition), many measures have been suggested
to assess the degree to which a sequence is random-like. However, each of them
focuses on one feature of randomness, leading authors to have to use multiple
measures. Here we describe and advocate for the use of the accepted universal
measure for randomness based on algorithmic complexity, by means of a novel
previously presented technique using the the definition of algorithmic
probability. A re-analysis of the classical Radio Zenith data in the light of
the proposed measure and methodology is provided as a study case of an
application.Comment: To appear in Behavior Research Method
Numerical Evaluation of Algorithmic Complexity for Short Strings: A Glance into the Innermost Structure of Randomness
We describe an alternative method (to compression) that combines several
theoretical and experimental results to numerically approximate the algorithmic
(Kolmogorov-Chaitin) complexity of all bit strings up to 8
bits long, and for some between 9 and 16 bits long. This is done by an
exhaustive execution of all deterministic 2-symbol Turing machines with up to 4
states for which the halting times are known thanks to the Busy Beaver problem,
that is 11019960576 machines. An output frequency distribution is then
computed, from which the algorithmic probability is calculated and the
algorithmic complexity evaluated by way of the (Levin-Zvonkin-Chaitin) coding
theorem.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures. Version as accepted by the journal Applied
Mathematics and Computatio
Sequences with long range exclusions
Given an alphabet , we consider the size of the subsets of the full
sequence space determined by the additional restriction that
Here is a
positive, strictly increasing function. We review an other, graph theoretic,
formulation and then the known results covering various combinations of and
the alphabet size. In the second part of the paper we turn to the fine
structure of the allowed sequences in the particular case where is a
suitable polynomial. The generation of sequences leads naturally to consider
the problem of their maximal length, which turns out highly random
asymptotically in the alphabet size.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures. Replaces earlier version, submission 1204.3439,
major updat
Natural Halting Probabilities, Partial Randomness, and Zeta Functions
We introduce the zeta number, natural halting probability and natural
complexity of a Turing machine and we relate them to Chaitin's Omega number,
halting probability, and program-size complexity. A classification of Turing
machines according to their zeta numbers is proposed: divergent, convergent and
tuatara. We prove the existence of universal convergent and tuatara machines.
Various results on (algorithmic) randomness and partial randomness are proved.
For example, we show that the zeta number of a universal tuatara machine is
c.e. and random. A new type of partial randomness, asymptotic randomness, is
introduced. Finally we show that in contrast to classical (algorithmic)
randomness--which cannot be naturally characterised in terms of plain
complexity--asymptotic randomness admits such a characterisation.Comment: Accepted for publication in Information and Computin
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