The miraculous universal distribution
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: The miraculous universal distribution
zbMATH Open document ID: 0934.01007
DOI: 10.1007/BF03024407
author: Ming Li
author: W. Kirchherr
author: Paul M. B. Vitányi
published in: The Mathematical Intelligencer
publication date: 2000-04-02T00:00:00Z
review text: This describes a way of evaluating the randomness or complexity of data, of choosing between hypotheses, of assigning probabilities to hypotheses: by assigning probabilities to all hypotheses we satisfy Bayes' ideas, by choosing the most likely (the simplest) we use Ockham's razor. The probability comes from taking the negative of the complexity as an exponent: \(2^{-K}\), where \(K\) is some measure of the Kolmogorov complexity of the hypothesis. The purpose of these ideas is to draw conclusions from data in a reasonable way. Very readable and easy to understand at its own level.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 01A60
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 60-03
zbMATH DE Number: 1233977
zbMATH Keywords: Ockham's razor
zbMATH Keywords: Bayes
zbMATH Keywords: Kolmogorov complexity
zbMATH Keywords: universal distribution
MaRDI profile type: Publication
cites work: Q5613168
cites work: Q5808621
cites work: Average case complexity under the universal distribution equals worst- case complexity
cites work: On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem
full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03024407
OpenAlex ID: W1992958898
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1233977