psychoceramics: Re: Compression of random data

[Cosma Shalizi <shalizi @ phys-next1.physics.wisc.edu>]

acb sez:
> in short, it is mathematically impossible to  compress random data 

Isn't this truly in the left-handed sense that we say data are random if we
can't compress them?  (That's the import of using algorithmic complexity
to define randomness, for instance.) 


> Furthermore, this patent describes a compression method which it
> says can be recursively applied to data, reducing any file of data
> by one bit at a time.
> 

Quine (_Quiddities_, s.v. ``Universal Library'') explains how to
compress Borges's Library of Babel, which contains every possible book,
into just two books, containing respectively ``0'' and ``1''.

Cosma Shalizi
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