Kolmogorov Complexity, also known as algorithmic complexity, is a concept in theoretical computer science that measures the complexity of a piece of data based on the length of the shortest possible program (or description) that can generate that data. In simple terms, it quantifies how much information is contained in a string by assessing how succinctly it can be described. For a given string , the Kolmogorov Complexity is defined as the length of the shortest binary program such that when executed on a universal Turing machine, it produces as output.
This idea leads to several important implications, including the notion that more complex strings (those that do not have short descriptions) have higher Kolmogorov Complexity. In contrast, simple patterns or repetitive sequences can be compressed into shorter representations, resulting in lower complexity. One of the key insights from Kolmogorov Complexity is that it provides a formal framework for understanding randomness: a string is considered random if its Kolmogorov Complexity is close to the length of the string itself, indicating that there is no shorter description available.
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