Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c719IR // #c719Synthesis

I argue that data becomes temporarily interesting by itself to some self-improving, but computationally limited, subjective observer once he learns to predict or compress the data in a better way, thus making it subjectively simpler and more beautiful.

— In our words · Source: Driven by Compression Progress (Jürgen Schmidhuber)

[Use when]

Use when the same thing bores you now that electrified you a year ago: you compressed it, and the derivative went to zero.

[Why it matters]

The thesis in one sentence: interest is an event inside the observer at the moment of compression progress — not a quality sitting inside the data.

More from Driven by Compression Progress

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