+-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Kolmogorov Mailing List Archive | | 09 Sep 1999 - 25 Dec 2001 | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 ?? From: Olivier Bousquet ?? Subject: definition of Kolmogorov Complexity In order to encourage you to start the discussion, I would like to submit a topic although I am a beginner in the area: One important thing about the definition of Kolmogorov Complexity is the fact that it depends on a specific Turing Machine. a function that's enumerable from above Although the invariance theorem shows this dependence is limited to an additive constant, one may wonder whether there is a way to define an 'objective' complexity which would not depend on a Universal Turing Machine. Ray Solomonoff found an interesting way of defining an 'objective' universal probability distribution : " The 'Objective' universal distribution is obtained as follows: for each 3 tape Turing machine with unidirectional I/O tapes, (either universal and non-universal machines), we can associate an induced probability distribution. If we take a weighted average of those distributions (weight being proportional to 2^(-length of description of the machine's state transition table), we obtain a universal distribution that doesn't choose any particular machine." 1. Is this an acceptable definition of an 'objective' universal distribution ? By the way, I would like to stress a point here : it looks like Kolmogorov's name is most often used when talking about this kind of complexity measure, however he may not be considered as the unique originator of the notion since Chaitin and Solomonoff discovered it independently. Moreover, there is not only one such notion of algorithmic complexity and the ones introduced by Kolmogorov, Chaitin and Solomonoff were not all the same ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 11:49:13 +0200 (MET DST) From: John.Tromp@cwi.nl Message-Id: Subject: definition of Kolmogorov Complexity Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.stud.enst.fr/~obousque/kolmogorov.html >In order to encourage you to start the discussion, I would like to submit >a topic although I am a beginner in the area: >One important thing about the definition of Kolmogorov Complexity is the >fact >that it depends on a specific Turing Machine. This is unavoidable IMO. a function that's enumerable from above Although the invariance >theorem shows this dependence is limited to an additive constant, one may >wonder whether there is a way to define an 'objective' complexity >which would not depend on a Universal Turing Machine. Ray Solomonoff >found an interesting way of defining an 'objective' universal probability >distribution : >" The 'Objective' universal distribution is obtained as >follows: for each 3 tape Turing machine with unidirectional I/O >tapes, (either universal and non-universal machines), we can associate an >induced probability distribution. If we take a weighted average of >those distributions (weight being proportional to 2^(-length of >description of the machine's state transition table), we obtain a >universal distribution that doesn't choose any particular machine." There is little difference between choosing a particular machine and choosing a particular distribution. This 'objective' distribution corresponds to a universal machine which expects a description of some machine's state transition table and simulates that machine on the remainder of the input tape. You still need to make lots of arbitrary choices in how to encode the transition table... >1. Is this an acceptable definition of an 'objective' universal >distribution ? It may not seem so 'objective' once you spell out the details of the transition table encoding... >By the way, I would like to stress a point here : it looks like >Kolmogorov's >name is most often used when talking about this kind of complexity >measure, however he may not be considered as the unique originator of >the notion since Chaitin and Solomonoff discovered it independently. >Moreover, there is not only one such notion of algorithmic complexity >and the ones introduced by Kolmogorov, Chaitin and Solomonoff were not >all the same. Uspenski et al. wrote some nice papers unifying the various measures, they called them KP,KS,KA,KD, and KM. In practice most people will keep using C and K sometimes leaving open the question of whether they mean simple (KS) or prefix (KP) complexity... regards, John Tromp (http://www.cwi.nl/~tromp/) ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 02:15:52 -0400 (EDT) From: ray j solomonoff Message-Id: <199910100615.CAA10208@world.std.com> Subject: Reply to message #1 Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.stud.enst.fr/~obousque/kolmogorov.html kolmogorov@listbot.com Oct 9, 1999 Reply to message #1: I have no disagreement with Jon Tromp's discussion: I don't find the idea of a universal a priori probability distribution that is independent of any specific Turing Machine to be a useful idea in terms of my own interests -- A.I. and inductive inference. From a practical point of view, the a priori probability that one uses in solving an induction problem is a summary of the probabilistic information that one had before being given the information in the problem. Ordinarily this distribution will depend on what problems and data one has encountered in the past. One might ask the speculative, heuristic (and not necessarily meaningful) question - what a priori distribution should one use if one has *no* previous information? - Is there some kind of "Platonic ideal" a priori distribution? My impression is that we need not answer this question: that in all real world problems, one *always* has "previous information". In many cases the language in which a problem is described will contain much information about the problem and how it is expected to be solved. Program length considerations are useful in transforming this linguistic information into a priori probability distributions. These a priori distributions are not "objective". The scientific community will usually not agree on any particular one as being appropriate to a given problem. I feel that "objectivity" is not a necessary virtue. Different people will come to the same problem with different histories of problems and data - they should use information in their past experience to solve present problems. The reasons for the non-uniqueness of the "solution" to the universal a priori distribution that I considered are just as Tromp says: there is arbitrariness in the algorithm for ordering the state tables, and one can use ordering schemes that give any desired a priori distribution. In addition, there are many formalisms equivalent to universal Turing Machines that are equivalent to re-ordering the state tables --- e.g... Ordinary computers with ability to ask for more memory; Post formal systems of rewrite rules; certain analog dynamical systems have been shown to be "universal; almost all of the computer languages that have been invented can simulate universal machines (sometimes minor modifications are needed); any of the adequate systems of formal logic... * * * I am less objective on whether we should label this large set of program length complexities by the general term "Kolmogorov Complexity". I have a few objections: 1. As Tromp mentions, it's very ambiguous. Kolmogorov's name was initially associated with two or three specific definitions of Complexity. Since 1960, many more kinds of program-length complexity have been proposed. They are often collectively referred to as "Kolmogorov Complexity". 2. "Program-length complexity" would be a better way to refer to these kinds of complexity. The name makes it clear that we are not talking about any particular version. All versions have certain common features, and one sometimes wants to refer to them as a whole. 3. The term Kolmogorov Complexity gives people the idea that Kolmogorov originated or claimed to originate the idea. "Kolmogorov-Chaitin-Solomonoff Complexity" is occasionally used, the with idea that it was independently discovered almost simultaneously by 3 people. Solomonoff, Kolmogorov, and Chaitin, first published in 1960, 1965 and 1966 respectively. In the times of Archimedes and even as late as Newton, a 5 year difference might have been regarded as "almost simultaneous". At the present time this is no longer true. Upon learning of my 1960 publication neither Kolmogorov nor Chaitin has ever claimed priority in this area. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 14:30:08 +1000 From: David L Dowe Message-Id: <199910130430.OAA02396@dec11.cs.monash.edu.au> Subject: Kolmogorov complexity special issue in Computer Journal To: undisclosed-recipients:; Dear All, The special issue of the Computer Journal on Kolmogorov complexity, featuring Wallace, C.S. and D.L. Dowe (1999). Minimum Message Length and Kolmogorov Complexity, Computer Journal (special issue on Kolmogorov complexity), Vol. 42, No. 4, pp270-283 and Wallace, C.S. and D.L. Dowe (1999). Refinements of MDL and MML coding (reply to J. J. Rissanen Computer Journal article), Computer Journal (special issue on Kolmogorov complexity), Vol. 42, No. 4, pp330-337 and Wallace, C.S. and D.L. Dowe (1999). Rejoinder (reply to 4 replies to our Computer Journal article), Computer Journal (special issue on Kolmogorov complexity), Vol. 42, No. 4, pp345-347 and many other articles is on-line at http://www3.oup.co.uk/computer_journal/hdb/Volume_42/Issue_04/ . Regards. - David. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "j.p.lewis" Message-Id: <9911081503.ZM16723@greg.dqimages.com> Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 15:03:36 -0800 X-Mailer: Z-Mail (3.2.3 08feb96 MediaMail) To: bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr Subject: online paper announce Hello, I just came across your excellent Kolmogorov Complexity site. Here's a link to a forthcoming paper. It's a bit obvious for your audience, but it addresses a new application, and one that is pretty large- thousands of consultants who write books on managing the software process...) --------------- "software crisis" = software rarely meets its promised delivery schedule and is always buggy "sofware engineering" = application of engineering principles to the above problems An article 'Formally unsolvable problems in software engineering' that shows that software engineering cannot (ever) fully solve the software crisis: http://www.idiom.com/~zilla/Papers/softEstimation28ja.ps.gz -- signature ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "Kolmogorov Complexity" To: "Kolmogorov Complexity" Delivered-To: mailing list kolmogorov@listbot.com Subject: Article in New Scientist Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/kolmogorov.html >Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 17:42:15 +0100 (MET) >From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl >The issue of New Scientist (6 Nov with "Snowball Earth" on the >cover) has an article about our work in applications of Kolmogorov >complexity (the "incompresibility method"). The cover mentions >this "feature" article as "Taming wild numbers". The artice is >called "On the Roll" (something about dice throws?) and is on >pp 44-47 (4 pages). ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Francois DENIS X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 ********************************************************* *********** TAI 2000 *************** ********************************************************* LILLE, FRANCE, 8-9 juin ****************************************************** ***** Quatrièmes journées françaises sur ***** ***** la Théorie Algorithmique de l'Information ***** ****************************************************** ****************************************************** ***** 4th French Workshop on ***** ***** Algorithmic Information Theory ***** ****************************************************** Les quatrièmes journées françaises sur la théorie algorithmique de l'information se tiendront à Lille les 8 et 9 juin 2000. Son thème principal est : "Théorie algorithmique de l'information et inférence inductive". Paul Vitanyi et Peter Gacs en seront les invités d'honneur. Les renseignements concernant ce colloque peuvent être trouvés à l'adresse suivante : http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/tai2000 The 4th French Workshop on Algorithmic Information Theory will be held in Lille on June 8th and 9th. The main thema of this workshop is "Algorithmic Information Theory and Inductive Inference". Invited speakers are professors Paul Vitanyi and Peter Gacs. Information about this workshop can be found at : http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/tai2000 -- François DENIS L.I.F.L. - GRAPPA http://www.grappa.univ-lille3.fr/~denis Adresse : 1. à Lille : UFR de Mathématiques, Sciences Economiques et Sociales, Université de Lille 3 59 653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex tel 03 20 41 61 75 fax 03 20 41 61 71 2. à Montpellier : LIRMM 161, rue Ada, 34392 Montpellier cedex 5 tel 04 67 41 86 57 fax 04 67 41 85 00 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 19:47:58 -0700 (PDT) From: noisebrain To: ashen@mccme.ru, bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr, cristian@cs.auckland.ac.nz, sophie.laplante@lri.fr, paul.vitanyi@cwi.nl Subject: statistical bounds on complexity Message-ID: Hello, can anyone comment on the following: You know that the halting set, the complexity K, etc. are not computable. But suppose someone claimed that they could compute these *statistically* and do better than chance, i.e. they say they have a program E that, for a string s, prints "s lies within complexity x...x+b" (for some bound b) and is correct in this statement for more than (e.g.) 80 percent of the strings you feed it. We know that the halting set cannot be statistically estimated in this way because the halting probability is algorithmically random. Is there a similar statement in regards to a supposed statistical estimator of algorithmic complexity? (And if not, please give your comment on the following arguments: 1) because a formal system of a particular size cannot prove a lower bound on strings much larger than its size, a supposed statistical estimator will fail on at least the lower bound part for sufficiently large strings. 2) Consider the statistical estimator E: P(K(p) \in k..k+b) > 80% as identifying the set B of strings of size k..k+b, then consider this as part one of a two-part description (the set, then identify the particular string within the set). (?) K(a|b) <= K(a|x) + K(x|b) + O(1) so K(K(s)|s) <= K(K(s)|B) + K(B|s) The part K(K(s)|B) should be O(1) for a fixed size bound b, more specifically it should be approximately log(b). Then, since K(K(s)|s) != O(1) (complexity of complexity is not recursive, Li & Vitanyi 2ed p.226) but K(K(s)|B) is O(1) it must be that K(B|s) is also not recursively computable, i.e., in the limit of large strings the supposed statistical estimator cannot exist? ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 19:34:38 +0400 (MSD) In-Reply-To: from "Olivier Bousquet" at Aug 24, 2000 04:25:38 PM From: shen@mccme.ru Return-Receipt-To: shen@shen.mccme.ru > To: "Kolmogorov Complexity" > From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl > > Your assumption about the statistical estimation of the halting set > isn't correct. It is known that one can compress the initial n-bit > segment of the characteristic sequence to a log n bit string (Barzdin's > lemma). So, flipping a fair coin you find the right compressed description > with probability > 1/n and hence the first n bits of the chracteristic > sequence. So, statistically, one has more than a chance of 1/1000 > of getting *all* halting answers correctly for the first 1000 programs. > > This is much better than by chance, where the probability would be > only 2^{-1000}. I would think that estimating the complexity is > even easier. If you want to do that statistically, you assume > for example, that you have a uniformly randomly prepared string > of length $n$. Then, with probability 1-2^c the complexity will be within > c bits of n. > > Cheers, Paul this raises the following (may be easy) question: for plain complexity $n$ is a computable estimate of complexity that is correct (up to O(1)) for 99% of strings of length $n$; can one do the same for prefix complexity (i.e., find a computable estimate that is O(1)-correct for 99% of all strings of any given length $n$)? ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 17:59:17 +0200 (MET DST) From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl Message-Id: To: bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr, kolmogorov@listbot.com Subject: Re: statistical bounds on complexity (From S.Shen) >From: shen@mccme.ru >Subject: Re: statistical bounds on complexity (fwd) > >> To: "Kolmogorov Complexity" >> From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl >> >> Your assumption about the statistical estimation of the halting set >> isn't correct. It is known that one can compress the initial n-bit >> segment of the characteristic sequence to a log n bit string (Barzdin's >> lemma). So, flipping a fair coin you find the right compressed description >> with probability > 1/n and hence the first n bits of the chracteristic >> sequence. So, statistically, one has more than a chance of 1/1000 >> of getting *all* halting answers correctly for the first 1000 programs. >> >> This is much better than by chance, where the probability would be >> only 2^{-1000}. I would think that estimating the complexity is >> even easier. If you want to do that statistically, you assume >> for example, that you have a uniformly randomly prepared string >> of length $n$. Then, with probability 1-2^c the complexity will be within >> c bits of n. >> >> Cheers, Paul > >this raises the following (may be easy) question: for plain >complexity $n$ is a computable estimate of complexity that is >correct (up to O(1)) for 99% of strings of length $n$; can one >do the same for prefix complexity (i.e., find a computable >estimate that is O(1)-correct for 99% of all strings of any >given length $n$)? That seems a more difficult question. However, (a) there is a recursive function that coincides with the maximal prefix complexity of n-length strings for infinitely many n. (b) for every n, a positive fraction of all strings of length n has at least maximal prefix complexity, and 99% of the strings are within 10 bits of the maximum. Consequently, there is a computable estimate that is O(1)-correct for 99% of all strings of any given length $n$ for the prefix complexity. Cheers, Paul ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2000 20:08:15 -0700 (PDT) From: noisebrain To: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl cc: shen@mccme.ru, bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr, cristian@cs.auckland.ac.nz, sophie.laplante@lri.fr Subject: Re: statistical bounds on complexity In-Reply-To: Message-ID: thanks! > only 2^{-1000}. I would think that estimating the complexity is > even easier. If you want to do that statistically, you assume > for example, that you have a uniformly randomly prepared string This is easy if the strings are required to be randomly chosen, but what about if someone claims to have a procedure for statistically estimating the complexity of *any* strings that are given to the procedure (i.e., non-random strings from an unknown source)? This is supposed function k(s) that prints K(s) correct within a bound b: k(s) <= K(s) <= k(s)+b. Are there problems with the following argument?: (I'm new to this field, so I'm sure there are) Consider k as part one of a two-part description: k defines the set of strings with complexity within bound b of that indicated by k. Then look at the complexity of identifying the complexity of the particular string within that set: general inequality: K(a|b) <= K(a|X) + K(X|b) + O(1) (below need this to be true if X is a set rather than a string) Substitute 'complexity of complexity' for a: K(K(s)|s) <= K(K(s)|B) + K(B|s) s - the string to bound, B - the set of strings having complexity within this bound. The part K(K(s)|B) should be O(1) for a fixed size bound b -- it should be approximately log(b). Then, since K(K(s)|s) != O(1) (complexity of complexity is not recursive, Li & Vitanyi 2ed p.226) but K(K(s)|B) is O(1) it must be that K(B|s) is also not recursively computable. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Olivier Bousquet X-Sender: bousquet@georgev.polytechnique.fr cc: anceau@cnam.fr, pinson.g@wanadoo.fr Subject: Classification of Entropies Message-ID: Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/kolmogorov.html Dear all, Recently, G'erard Pinson created a classification of the existing notions of entropy : from Shannon entropy to quantum Kolmgorov complexity, he designed a table listing their various properties. I believe this work is of high interest for people interested in Kolmogorov Complexity and its variants. However, this classification has to be refined, extended and discussed and this mailing list looks like a good place for doing so. I thus suggest you to review the classification at the following url : http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/Kolmogorov/entropies.html and to use the mailing list to discuss it. Thank you for your interest. Best Regards, Olivier Bousquet. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "Bill Halchin" Cc: bhalchin@hotmail.com Subject: Prefix-free computable functions Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 21:59:50 Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Jan 2001 21:59:50.0187 (UTC) FILETIME=[D34C57B0:01C07762] Sender: kolmogorov-return-18-16817135@listbot.com Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/kolmogorov.html Hello, Is it true that the set/class of "prefix-free computable functions" equals the set/class of computable functions? If not, then how can we talk about having the universality property or in other words, Turing-complete. In any paper/book, mention is always made of U, a unversal computer, that takes programs represented as prefix-free strings. If the above-mentioned two sets are not the same then U cannot be universal! Please help me on this. Regards, Bill Halchin ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 12:20:44 -0700 (MST) From: Vladik Kreinovich Reply-To: Vladik Kreinovich Subject: Re: Prefix-free computable functions Cc: bhalchin@hotmail.com > Is it true that the set/class of "prefix-free computable > functions" equals the set/class of computable functions? Yes, it is true. Actually, the easiest probably way to view it is to consider any standard programming language like Pascal or C. The set of all programs in this language is universal in the sense that any algorithm can be represented by a program in Pascal. On the other hand, the set of all such programs is clearly prefix-free, in the sense that one program cannot be the beginning ("prefix") of the other. For example, in many langauge, the program ends with a word "end" or with a period, so there is no way that a program can contain another program as its beginning. This is actually where this abstract notion of prefix-free strings cam from: as a formalization of the programs in a programming language (since Kolmogorov complexity of a string means the length of the shortest program which produces this string). > If not, > then how can we talk about having the universality property > or in other words, Turing-complete. In any paper/book, mention is > always made of U, a unversal computer, that takes programs represented > as prefix-free strings. If the above-mentioned two sets are not the > same then U cannot be universal! Please help me on this. > > > Regards, > > Bill Halchin ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2001 15:24:50 +0100 (MET) From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl Message-Id: Subject: Re: Prefix-free computable functions Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/kolmogorov.html >Hello, > > > Is it true that the set/class of "prefix-free computable >functions" equals the set/class of computable functions? If not, Yes, that is true. Fairly obviosly. See for a proof for example the Li-Vitanyi textbook. >then how can we talk about having the universality property >or in other words, Turing-complete. In any paper/book, mention is >always made of U, a unversal computer, that takes programs represented >as prefix-free strings. If the above-mentioned two sets are not the >same then U cannot be universal! Please help me on this. > Dot worry. They are the same--see textbooks. Paul Vitanyi ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2001 05:21:19 -0800 (PST) From: Flex Flex Subject: Re: Why Kolmogorov complexity is not always computable? Cc: kolmogorov@listbot.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii If I have a string X of length M I Know that the programs that output X can be shorter than X or can be longer about X when to output X I need all the information X. Now I try for all program shorter than X and take the shorter program that produce X. The problem is How can I determine that a program p shorter than X is not an halting program and so do not execute it ? I have a SPACE LIMIT so I can determine if a program halt or not!! I know that the program that produce X must be shorter than X because in other case I know the program because it is X . So the space limit is M. Now if I have a space limit I can say that a program P of length M do not halt if it go for more than one time in the same state where the state is composed by the number of line execution and the value of all memory used by the program . I can say that this is only case where a program do If I have a string X of length M I Know that the programs that output X can be shorter than X or can be longer about X when to output X I need all the information X. Now I try for all program shorter than X and take the shorter program that produce X. The problem is How can I determine that a program p shorter than X is not an halting program and so do not execute it ? I have a SPACE LIMIT so I can determine if a program halt or not!! I know that the program that produce X must be shorter than X because in other case I know the program because it is X . So the space limit is M. Now if I have a space limit I can say that a program P of length M do not halt if it go for more than one time in the same state where the state is composed by the number of line execution and the value of all memory used by the program . I can say that this is only case where a program do not halt because if I suppose that a program do not halt and do not pass 2 times for the same state this program must use an infinity memory but this is out from hypothesis of a space limit M!!!. Moreover It is simple to calculate an upper bound to compute a Kolmogorov complexity for a string X . I compute space-time upper bound and its request is very big but It seem computable. Well where is the problem? --- Thomas English wrote: > Antiga Denis wrote: > > > In the book "An Introduction to Kolmogorov > Complexity > > and Its Applications" Ming Li ,Paul Vitànyi > > there is the proof of incomputability of > Kolmogorov > > Complexity. > > I do not understand this proof and I think that > the > > Kolmogorov Complexity is always computable. > > > > Can anyone explain me why the Kolmogorov > Complexity is > > incomputable? > > In entirely intuitive terms, suppose that you have a > length m binary string x, and you > know that x is output by halting program p of length > n. The crucial question is how > you determine that there is no halting program p' of > length k < n that outputs x. > There generally exist shorter programs the do not > halt, but there is no way for you to > tell which programs run for a long time before > halting and which run without halting. > Thus you have no way to say, in the general case, > that any program is the shortest > that generates a given string, and Kolmogorov > complexity is uncomputable. > > Hope that helps. > > Tom English > ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2001 14:53:37 +0100 (MET) From: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl Message-Id: Subject: Re: Why Kolmogorov complexity is not always computable? Sender: kolmogorov-return-23-16817135@listbot.com > >In the book "An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity >and Its Applications" Ming Li ,Paul Vitànyi >there is the proof of incomputability of Kolmogorov >Complexity. >I do not understand this proof and I think that the >Kolmogorov Complexity is always computable. > >Can anyone explain me why the Kolmogorov Complexity is >incomputable? > >Thanks. > >Antiga Denis. > Dear Antiga, Let's give a simple complete proof. a) There are 2^n binary strings of length n and only \sum_{i=0}^{n-1} 2^i = 2^n - 1 binary programs of length < n. Hence there is one x (at least) that is not computed by a program of length < n. This x has complexity C(x) >= n. b) Suppose C(.) were computable. Now, for every n there is a lexicographical first x, say x_n, of complexity C(x_n) >= n (by a)). But by the computability of C(.) we can compute the complexities of all binary strings of length n, and hence find the lexicographical first x among them that has complexity C(x) >= n. By definition this is x_n. Since the only information we required to compute x_n was the number n (can be given in log n bits) plus a fixed standard program, we obtain C(x_n) <= log n + O(1). This contradicts C(x_n) >= n for all n apart from a finite initial set of values of n. Hence C(x) is not computable. NOTE: C(x) can of course be approximated from above by a computable function as is explained in Li-Vitanyi. Cheers, Paul ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 08:44:07 -0700 (MST) From: Vladik Kreinovich Reply-To: Vladik Kreinovich Subject: complexity nearly made it to 24th Hilbert Problem amopng ones presented in 1900 Cc: longpre@cs.utep.edu X-Mailer: dtmail 1.3.0 @(#)CDE Version 1.4 SunOS 5.8 sun4u sparc This may be of interest to Kolmogorov complexity community. A letter published in February 2001 Notices of the American Mathematical Society, p. 167, mentions that "Professor Ruediger Thiele (Halle University) has found in a notebook ... a passage in which Hilbert recalled including a 24th problem for his Paris address. It was concerned with finding criteria for finding simplest proofs of theorems in mathematics". ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 07:18:47 -0800 (PST) From: Flex Flex Subject: Re: Why Kolmogorov complexity is not always computable? Cc: Kolmogorov@listbot.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: kolmogorov-return-25-16817135@listbot.com Ok. But It possible to convert all programs that use a space during computations to programs more length . For example if I have a program with source code length M and data used by program of length D I can convert this program in another program of length about M+D . Now you say that the program can use an illimitate data but it means that the program is illimitate so it can be more length than X. Best regards, Denis. --- shen@mccme.ru wrote: > `Space limit' you mention is for the _length of > program_, but > not for the space used during the computation. > > > If I have a string X of length M I Know that the > > programs that output X can be shorter > > than X or can be longer about X when to output X I > > need all the information X. > > Now I try for all program shorter than X and take > the > > shorter program that produce X. > > The problem is How can I determine that a program > p > > shorter than X is not an halting > > program and so do not execute it ? > > I have a SPACE LIMIT so I can determine if a > program > > halt or not!! > > I know that the program that produce X must be > shorter > > than X > > because in other case I know the program because > it is > > X . > > So the space limit is M. > > Now if I have a space limit I can say that a > program P > > of length M do not halt if it > > go for more than one time in the same state where > the > > state is composed by the number > > of line execution and the value of all memory used > by > > the program . > > I can say that this is only case where a program > do If > > I have a string X of length M I Know that the > programs > > that output X can be shorter > > than X or can be longer about X when to output X I > > need all the information X. > > Now I try for all program shorter than X and take > the > > shorter program that produce X. > > The problem is How can I determine that a program > p > > shorter than X is not an halting > > program and so do not execute it ? > > I have a SPACE LIMIT so I can determine if a > program > > halt or not!! > > I know that the program that produce X must be > shorter > > than X > > because in other case I know the program because > it is > > X . > > So the space limit is M. > > Now if I have a space limit I can say that a > program P > > of length M do not halt if it > > go for more than one time in the same state where > the > > state is composed by the number > > of line execution and the value of all memory used > by > > the program . > > I can say that this is only case where a program > do > > not halt because if I suppose that > > a program do not halt and do not pass 2 times for > the > > same state this program must use > > an infinity memory but this is out from hypothesis > of > > a space limit M!!!. > > Moreover It is simple to calculate an upper bound > to > > compute a Kolmogorov complexity for > > a string X . > > I compute space-time upper bound and its request > is > > very big but It seem computable. > > > > Well where is the problem? > > > > --- Thomas English wrote: > > > Antiga Denis wrote: > > > > > > > In the book "An Introduction to Kolmogorov > > > Complexity > > > > and Its Applications" Ming Li ,Paul Vitànyi > > > > there is the proof of incomputability of > > > Kolmogorov > > > > Complexity. > > > > I do not understand this proof and I think > that > > > the > > > > Kolmogorov Complexity is always computable. > > > > > > > > Can anyone explain me why the Kolmogorov > > > Complexity is > > > > incomputable? > > > > > > In entirely intuitive terms, suppose that you > have a > > > length m binary string x, and you > > > know that x is output by halting program p of > length > > > n. The crucial question is how > > > you determine that there is no halting program > p' of > > > length k < n that outputs x. > > > There generally exist shorter programs the do > not > > > halt, but there is no way for you to > > > tell which programs run for a long time before > > > halting and which run without halting. > > > Thus you have no way to say, in the general > case, > > > that any program is the shortest > > > that generates a given string, and Kolmogorov > > > complexity is uncomputable. > > > > > > Hope that helps. > > > > > > Tom English > > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2001 09:02:53 +0100 (CET) From: Olivier Bousquet X-Sender: bousquet@georgev.polytechnique.fr Subject: optimal search algorithm (fwd) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2001 18:24:11 +0100 From: juergen@idsia.ch To: connectionists@cs.cmu.edu Subject: optimal search algorithm Dear connectionists, Recently Marcus Hutter has developed a very general, asymptotically optimal search method that should be of interest to researchers in the areas of reinforcement learning & neural networks & AI. The method is not limited to machine learning problems though - I believe it will find its way into general computer science textbooks. With the benefit of hindsight I find it amazing that it has remained undiscovered up until the turn of the century. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The fastest and shortest algorithm for all well-defined problems Marcus Hutter, IDSIA An algorithm M is described that solves any well-defined problem p as quickly as the fastest algorithm computing a solution to p, save for a factor of 5 and low-order additive terms. M optimally distributes resources between the execution of provably correct p-solving programs and an enumeration of all proofs, including relevant proofs of program correctness and of time bounds on program runtimes. M avoids Blum's speed-up theorem by ignoring programs without correctness proof. M has broader applicability and can be faster than Levin's universal search, the fastest method for inverting functions save for a large multiplicative constant. An extension of Kolmogorov complexity and two novel natural measures of function complexity are used to show that the most efficient program computing some function f is also among the shortest programs provably computing f. ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/techrep/IDSIA-16-00.ps.gz ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Juergen Schmidhuber www.idsia.ch ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2001 15:24:42 -0400 Subject: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) From: Gary Warren King Message-ID: Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: kolmogorov-return-27-16817135@listbot.com In the proof of MDL from Bayes' rule, the claim is made that K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) (e.g., page 356 of Li and Vitanyi). Now I understand that Pr( * | H) can be derived from P( H ). But K( Pr( * | H ) ) = K( n ) and K( P( H )) = K( m ) where n and m are the indexes of Pr( * | H ) and P( H ), respectively, in the enumeration of enumerable semi-measures and I see reason that K( n ) is necessarily >= K( m ). Even if it were the case for some enumeration, it seems that a different enumeration could still give different results. My thanks for any light shed on this subject. Regards, -- Gary Warren King EKSL - University of Massachusetts, Amherst ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Message-ID: <02c801c0bc28$12890fe0$2bbfb0c3@idsia.ch> From: "Marcus Hutter" Cc: "Gary Warren King" References: Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 12:23:05 +0200 Hello Gary, In the book of Li&Vitanyi page 356 eq. (5.20) says -K(Pr(*|H)) >= -K(H) + O(1) Do you mean this inequality? Then you missed the minus sign and the r.h.s. is K(H) not K(P(H)). So K(Pr(*|H)) <= K(H) + O(1) which can be seen in the following way: If you have a coding of H of length K(H) and a coding of Pr(*|*) of length K(Pr(*|*)) you can easily construct a coding of Pr(*|H) of length K(H) + K(Pr(*|*)) + O(1). Since K(Pr(*|H)) is the length of the shortest coding of Pr(*|H) and by assumption K(Pr(*|*))=O(1) the inequality K(Pr(*|H)) <= K(H) + O(1) follows. Regards, Marcus --- Dr. Marcus Hutter, IDSIA Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale Galleria 2 CH-6928 Manno(Lugano) - Switzerland Phone: +41-91-6108667 Fax: +41-91-6108661 E-mail marcus@idsia.ch http://www.idsia.ch/~marcus ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 08:51:27 -0400 Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) From: Gary Warren King Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <02c801c0bc28$12890fe0$2bbfb0c3@idsia.ch> Mime-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Sender: kolmogorov-return-29-16817135@listbot.com Thanks for your help. > In the book of Li&Vitanyi page 356 eq. (5.20) says > -K(Pr(*|H)) >= -K(H) + O(1) > Do you mean this inequality? I did mean this inequality, though I left off the minus signs through a lack of memory and, hard to believe but true, I had not noticed until you pointed it out that we were dealing with K(H) rather than K(P(H)). Sigh. > ... by assumption K(Pr(*|*))=O(1) I'm probably being dense, but why can we assume that K(Pr(*|*))=O(1)? Rather, do you mean that Pr(*|*) is fixed based on the particular problem we are dealing with and therefore is a constant with respect to D and H? Thanks, -- Gary Warren King EKSL - University of Massachusetts, Amherst ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Message-ID: <034101c0bc4d$049c7500$2bbfb0c3@idsia.ch> From: "Marcus Hutter" Cc: References: Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 16:47:34 +0200 > I'm probably being dense, but why can we assume that K(Pr(*|*))=O(1)? > Rather, do you mean that Pr(*|*) is fixed based on the particular problem we > are dealing with and therefore is a constant with respect to D and H? Exactly! Personally I would leave K(Pr(*|*)) and write O(1) only if it really depends on nothing, because the use of O() is sometimes very overloaded. Maybe you find something interesting in my related works on universal induction, AI and fast search lgorithms. http://www.hutter1.de/ai "The Fastest and Shortest Algorithm for All Well-Defined Problems" "General Loss Bounds for Universal Sequence Prediction" "A Theory of Universal Artificial Intelligence based on Algorithmic Complexity" Marcus --- Dr. Marcus Hutter, IDSIA Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale Galleria 2 CH-6928 Manno(Lugano) - Switzerland Phone: +41-91-6108667 Fax: +41-91-6108661 E-mail marcus@idsia.ch http://www.idsia.ch/~marcus ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "P. Vitanyi" Received: (from paulv@localhost) by kuip.cwi.nl (8.11.0/8.9.3/FLW-3.2C) id f33Ffg806778; Tue, 3 Apr 2001 17:41:42 +0200 Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 17:41:42 +0200 Message-Id: <200104031541.f33Ffg806778@kuip.cwi.nl> Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) Cc: Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl Sender: kolmogorov-return-31-16817135@listbot.com >In the proof of MDL from Bayes' rule, the claim is made that K( Pr( * | H )) >>= K( P( H ) ) (e.g., page 356 of Li and Vitanyi). Now I understand that Pr( * | >H) can be derived from P( H ). But Both p. 356 and p 357. There it is stated that (*) K(Pr(*|H)) \leq K(H)+O(1). Not: K(P(H)) as you write. Since Pr(*|H) and P(H) can be chosen to have any relation to each other what you write would not be true. Also, >>= is not used on those pages. Th (*) follows since the knowledge of $H$ suffices to generate the probability $Pr(*|H)$ (by definition) > Best, Paul ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 09:42:29 -0600 (MDT) From: Vladik Kreinovich Reply-To: Vladik Kreinovich Subject: FOM: Hilbert's 24th problem FYI. It may be of interest because of the natural interpretation of simple proofs as, e.g., shortest. Vladik ------------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------- From: teun@cs.vu.nl Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 16:11:20 +0200 X-Accept-Language: nl, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "fom@math.psu.edu" CC: teun@cs.vu.nl, Ruediger Thiele Subject: FOM: Hilbert's 24th problem Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit FOM subscribers may be interested in knowing that the German historian Ruediger Thiele (Leipzig) has found an interesting text in Hilberts handwritten notes in the Library in Goettingen. The handwriting, which is here and there difficult to read, clearly shows that Hilbert considered the possibility to add a 24th problem to his famous list of 23 problems. The problem is a FOM problem concerning the simplicity of proofs. This is my somewhat free translation of the first part of the text (the complete German original follows at the end of this posting): "As 24th problem in my lecture in Paris I wanted to pose the question: criteria for the simplicity or give a proof of the greatest simplicty of certain proofs. In general develop a theory of methods of proof in mathematics. After all under given conditions there can be only one simplest proof. In general when one has two proofs for one theorem, one should not rest before one has reduced the proofs to each other or understood exactly which different suppositions (and aids)are used in the proofs: If one has two roads, one should not only go these roads or look for new ones, but instead investigate the whole area between the two roads." In the last part of the text Hilbert refers to his work in invariant theory where he allegedly made some first steps on the way to determine the simplicity of a proof. It is not clear - at least not to me - what he is precisely referring to In the last sentence of the text there is a reference to geometry and the possibility to determine the simplicity of a proof by counting the number of steps in a proof. Clearly there are many interesting questions to be asked. 1. Why did Hilbert not include this 24th problem. 2. What does this finding add to our knowledge of Hilbert's development as for the foundations of mathematics? 3. To what extent is the problem solved? 4. Waht does the vague reference to his work in invariant theory (his work on 'syzygies') precisely mean? Etc. The text of a lecture by Ruediger Thiele on this matter will be published in Michael Kinyon (Ed.), History of Mathematics at the Dawn of a New Millenium, Proceedings of a Conference of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. 2000. I don't know when this book will appear. Moreover, I feel the existence of a 24th problem deserves to be known more widely than it is now. Thiele gave me permission for this posting. "I am tired now, so I agree with everything", he mailed me. I won't ask twice. Teun Koetsier The German original: "Als 24stes Problem in meinem Pariser Vortrag wollte ich die Frage stellen: Kriterien für die Einfachheit bez. Beweis der groessten Einfachheit von gewissen Beweisen fuehren. Ueberhaupt eine Theorie der Beweismethoden in der Mathematik entwickeln. Es kann doch bei gegebenen Voraussetzungen nur einen einfachsten Beweis geben. Ueberhaupt wenn man für einen Satz 2 Beweise hat, so muss man nicht eher ruhen, als man die beide aufeinander zurueckgeführt oder genau erkannt hat welche verschiedenen Voraussetzungen (und Huelfsmittel) bei den Beweisen benutzt werden: Wenn man 2 Wege hat, so muss man nicht bloss diese Wege gehen oder neue suchen, sondern dann das ganze zwischen den beiden Wegen liegende Gebiet erforschen. Ansaetze, die Einfachheit der Beweise zu beurteilen, bieten meine Untersuchungen ueber Syzygien und Syzysien zwischen Syzygien. Die Benutzung oder Kentniss einer Syzygie vereinfacht den Beweis, dass eine gewisse Identitaet richtig ist, erheblich. Da jeder Process des Addierens Anwendung des cummutativen Gesetzes der Addition ist. - [Da] dies immer geometrischen Saetzen oder logischen Schluessen entspricht, so kann man diese zaehlen und z.B. beim Beweis bestimmter Saetze in der Elementargeometrie (Pythagoras, oder ueber merkwuerdige Punkte im Dreieck), sehr wohl entscheiden, welches der einfachste Beweis ist." ------------- End Forwarded Message ------------- ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: salamon-ja@att.net Cc: kolmogorov@listbot.com Subject: Re: FOM: Hilbert's 24th problem Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 18:04:31 +0000 X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Mar 27 2001) Message-Id: <20010404180432.SYMG21045.mtiwmhc25.worldnet.att.net@webmail.worldnet.att.net> The shortest proof is not necessarily the 'simplest' proof in mathematics. A mathematical result may follow from a previous theorem understood by only 10 mathematicians in the world. Hence the whole proof may only be two steps. The only way that shortness of a proof can be used as a measure of simplicity is to convert the proof into fundamental mathematical principles and THEN see how long it is compared to another proof similarly converted. In other words, both proofs being compared would have to be derived from say, set theory, or some other base line before they could be quantitavly compared to each other vis a vis length or simplicity. The concept of simplicity has to be rigorously defined if it is to be used a measure of simplicity or indeed Kolmogorov complexity (which amounts to the same thing). That is probably why Hilbert did not propose this problem, he probably realized that simplicity is not easily defined and/or measurable. Jacob Salamon ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Message-Id: <200104041838.f34Icpi01294@cs.utep.edu> Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 12:38:51 -0600 (MDT) From: Vladik Kreinovich Reply-To: Vladik Kreinovich Subject: Re: FOM: Hilbert's 24th problem Cc: kolmogorov@listbot.com Dear Dr. Salamon, Thanks a lot for your prompt and thoughtful comments. I agree 100% with everything you say. In particular, I agree that shortness is not necessarily an indication of simplicity, this is why I said "e.g.,", I just wanted to explain why I feel that this message is relevant for this community (since the original concept of Kolmogorov complexity as the length of the shortest program - in a given universal language - producing a given string). I think that there are at least two reasons why this new discovery is relevant to us. First, the fact that Hilbert seriously considered adding this problem may be a good PR boost for our community. I think you made a very reasonable suggestion that a possible reason why Hilbert did not include this problem is that he realized that defining complexity is not that easy. We know it is not that easy, but we have an advantage of Kolmogorov complexity being a well-developed area. Second, it may give us food for thought for applications to proofs. Vladik ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2001 20:20:02 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <200104051020.UAA20287@fangorn.csse.monash.edu.au> From: dld@mail.csse.monash.edu.au Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) Cc: kolmogorov@listbot.com > From kolmogorov-return-30-25901626@listbot.com Wed Apr 4 16:06:00 2001 > Subject: Re: In MDL proof, why is K( Pr( * | H )) >= K( P( H ) ) > To: Kolmogorov Complexity > Cc: kolmogorov@listbot.com > > > I'm probably being dense, but why can we assume that K(Pr(*|*))=O(1)? > > Rather, do you mean that Pr(*|*) is fixed based on the particular problem > we > > are dealing with and therefore is a constant with respect to D and H? > > Exactly! Personally I would leave K(Pr(*|*)) and write O(1) only if it > really > depends on nothing, because the use of O() is sometimes very overloaded. Dear Gary, Marcus, Paul et al., Hi. I would invite interested parties unfamiliar with the work to look at: C. S. Wallace and (me) D. L. Dowe (1999), "Minimum Message Length and Kolmogorov complexity", Comp. J., Vol 42, No. 4, pp270-283; and, of course, to other articles in that special issue of the Computer Journal. I agree with Marcus that the use of O(1) is over-loaded. As discussed in that special issue of the Computer Journal, the choice of the (U)TM and the corresponding O(1) is tantamount to the choice of Bayesian prior. When doing real-world MML/MDL inference on a data-set, such an O(1) could be bigger than the size of the data-set under consideration. Page 280 of Wallace-Dowe (1999) contains Section 7. Terms 'of order one', elaborating on this point. Regards. David. http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld > > Maybe you find something interesting in my related works on universal > induction, > AI and fast search lgorithms. > http://www.hutter1.de/ai > > "The Fastest and Shortest Algorithm for All Well-Defined Problems" > "General Loss Bounds for Universal Sequence Prediction" > "A Theory of Universal Artificial Intelligence based on Algorithmic > Complexity" > > > Marcus > > --- > Dr. Marcus Hutter, IDSIA > Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale > Galleria 2 CH-6928 Manno(Lugano) - Switzerland > Phone: +41-91-6108667 Fax: +41-91-6108661 > E-mail marcus@idsia.ch http://www.idsia.ch/~marcus ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "P. Vitanyi" Received: (from paulv@localhost) by kuip.cwi.nl (8.11.0/8.9.3/FLW-3.2C) id f3NG50g04453 for kolmogorov@listbot.com; Mon, 23 Apr 2001 18:05:00 +0200 Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 18:05:00 +0200 Message-Id: <200104231605.f3NG50g04453@kuip.cwi.nl> Subject: Two new papers Dear All, This list seems like an effective way to spread info on new papers. I propose we do that, and kick-off: You may be interested in the following papers on the theory and applications of Kolmogorov complexity: http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/math.PR/0006233 Algorithmic Statistics Authors: Peter Gacs (Boston University), John Tromp (CWI), Paul Vitanyi (CWI and University of Amsterdam) Comments: LaTeX, 22 pages, 1 figure, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, to appear. (Prel. Version: Proc. ALT2000, LNAI Vol. 1968, Springer Verlag, Berlin, 2000, 219--233.) Subj-class: Probability Theory; Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability; Learning MSC-class: 62B05, 62B10, 68Q32, 68Q30, 60AXX, 68T04 While Kolmogorov complexity is the accepted absolute measure of information content of an individual finite object, a similarly absolute notion is needed for the relation between an individual data sample and an individual model summarizing the information in the data, for example, a finite set (or probability distribution) where the data sample typically came from. The statistical theory based on such relations between individual objects can be called algorithmic statistics, in contrast to classical statistical theory that deals with relations between probabilistic ensembles. We develop the algorithmic theory of statistic, sufficient statistic, and minimal sufficient statistic. This theory is based on two-part codes consisting of the code for the statistic (the model summarizing the regularity, the meaningful information, in the data) and the model-to-data code. In contrast to the situation in probabilistic statistical theory, the algorithmic relation of (minimal) sufficiency is an absolute relation between the individual model and the individual data sample. We distinguish implicit and explicit descriptions of the models. We give characterizations of algorithmic (Kolmogorov) minimal sufficient statistic for all data samples for both description modes---in the explicit mode under some constraints. We also strengthen and elaborate earlier results on the ``Kolmogorov structure function'' and ``absolutely non-stochastic objects''---those rare objects for which the simplest models that summarize their relevant information (minimal sufficient statistics) are at least as complex as the objects themselves. We demonstrate a close relation between the probabilistic notions and the algorithmic ones. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/0102108 Quantum Kolmogorov Complexity Based on Classical Descriptions Authors: Paul M.B. Vitanyi Comments: 17 pages, LaTeX, final and extended version of quant-ph/9907035, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, To appear Subj-class: Quantum Physics; Computational Complexity; Logic 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. http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/cs.CV/0101036 The Generalized Universal Law of Generalization Authors: Nick Chater (Univ. Warwick), Paul Vitanyi (CWI and Univ. Amsterdam) Comments: 17 pages LaTeX, Submitted Subj-class: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition; Artificial Intelligence; Physics and Society; Probability Theory ACM-class: J.4 It has been argued by Shepard that there is a robust psychological law that relates the distance between a pair of items in psychological space and the probability that they will be confused with each other. Specifically, the probability of confusion is a negative exponential function of the distance between the pair of items. In experimental contexts, distance is typically defined in terms of a multidimensional Euclidean space-but this assumption seems unlikely to hold for complex stimuli. We show that, nonetheless, the Universal Law of Generalization can be derived in the more complex setting of arbitrary stimuli, using a much more universal measure of distance. This universal distance is defined as the length of the shortest program that transforms the representations of the two items of interest into one another: the algorithmic information distance. It is universal in the sense that it minorizes every computable distance: it is the smallest computable distance. We show that the universal law of generalization holds with probability going to one-provided the confusion probabilities are computable. We also give a mathematically more appealing form http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/physics/0005062 Applying MDL to Learning Best Model Granularity Authors: Qiong Gao (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Ming Li (University of California, Santa Barbara), Paul Vitanyi (CWI and University of Amsterdam) Comments: LaTeX, 32 pages, 5 figures. Artificial Intelligence journal, To appear Subj-class: Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability; Artificial Intelligence; Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition The Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle is solidly based on a provably ideal method of inference using Kolmogorov complexity. We test how the theory behaves in practice on a general problem in model selection: that of learning the best model granularity. The performance of a model depends critically on the granularity, for example the choice of precision of the parameters. Too high precision generally involves modeling of accidental noise and too low precision may lead to confusion of models that should be distinguished. This precision is often determined ad hoc. In MDL the best model is the one that most compresses a two-part code of the data set: this embodies ``Occam's Razor.'' In two quite different experimental settings the theoretical value determined using MDL coincides with the best value found experimentally. In the first experiment the task is to recognize isolated handwritten characters in one subject's handwriting, irrespective of size and orientation. Based on a new modification of elastic matching, using multiple prototypes per character, the optimal prediction rate is predicted for the learned parameter (length of sampling interval) considered most likely by MDL, which is shown to coincide with the best value found experimentally. In the second experiment the task is to model a robot arm with two degrees of freedom using a three layer feed-forward neural network where we need to determine the number of nodes in the hidden layer giving best modeling performance. The optimal model (the one that extrapolizes best on unseen examples) is predicted for the number of nodes in the hidden layer considered most likely by MDL, which again is found to coincide with the best value found experimentally. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 17:56:18 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <200105020756.RAA02281@fangorn.csse.monash.edu.au> From: dld@mail.csse.monash.edu.au Subject: Monash: 2 x Research Fellow in Computational Data Analysis & Modelling Dear All, In Wednesday 2 May 2001's The Australian (a newspaper well known here in Australia :-) ), there is an ad in the Higher Education section, page 33, for "Research Fellow in Computational Data Analysis and Modelling (2 positions)". The advertisement says School of Comp. Sci. and Softw. Eng. (CSSE), Monash University, with a salary between Aus$35,594p.a. and Aus$60,382p.a. Further info: Leeanne Evans, leeanne@csse.monash.edu.au +61 3 9905-5200. The positions are available immediately, and are initially for 1 year with the prospect of renewal. Minimum Message Length (MML) was developed by Chris Wallace of Monash in (Wallace and Boulton, 1968), and there is still a very strong world-class MML research group here consisting of Chris Wallace, yours truly (David Dowe) and others. The relation between MML and Kolmogorov complexity has been studied by a number of authors, including Chris Wallace and myself, Paul Vitanyi and colleagues, and others. If you have any questions of a technical nature, please contact me. If you have any questions of an administrative nature, please contact Leeanne Evans, leeanne@csse.monash.edu.au +61 3 9905-5200. Ref. No.: A012737 Deadline: 16th May 2001. Regards to all. - David. Dr David Dowe, School of Computer Science and Software Eng., Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia dld@cs.monash.edu.au Fax:+61 3 9905-5146 http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/ http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/MML.html ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 17:49:11 +0200 (MET DST) From: Sophie.Laplante@lri.fr (Sophie Laplante) Message-Id: <200105141549.RAA01138@sun-algo.lri.fr> Subject: TAI 2001 Workshop Announcement Sender: kolmogorov-return-38-16817135@listbot.com %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TAI 2001 ANNOUNCEMENT - TAI 2001 ANNOUNCEMENT We apologize for multiple copies %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ********************************************** * * * TAI 2001 * * * * September 24-26, 2001 * * Porquerolles, Hyeres - France * * * ********************************************** Aim === The conference is organized with two main purposes. First, to gather researchers working in different areas in order to enforce and promote international collaborations and spread knowledge and acquired abilities. Second, to attract the unacquainted public in order to enlarge the community working on Kolmogorov complexity and related themes. The first objective is achieved by invited talks made by internationally renowned specialists, and by a long series of shorter talks so as to provide everybody the opportunity of presenting their ideas and results. The second objective is achieved by tutorial/introductory talks giving the state-of-the-art on fundamental aspects of Kolmogorov complexity, and at the same time providing "hooks" for beginning a research program on the theme. These will be particularly adapted to a public of young researchers. TAI participants are also invited to participate in the conference AUTOMATA 2001. More information can be found at the address: http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~eforment/confs/aut2001/aut_main.html Support ======= The conference is supported by: - Universite' de Provence Topics ====== Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): Kolmogorov complexity and related notions, algorithmic information theory and inductive inference, quantum Kolmogorov complexity, Kolmogorov complexity and dynamical systems, Kolmogorov complexity in bioinformatics. Submission ========== Researchers that plan to give a talk are invited to fill in the submission form on the conference web site. There is room for about twenty short talks of 30 minutes. If, for any reason, you cannot send the submission form electronically, please send the title, author and a short abstract to eforment@cmi.univ-mrs.fr or via surface mail to Enrico Formenti CMI - Centre de mathematique et informatique 39, rue Joliot-Curie 13453 Marseille cedex 13 France. Program Committee ================= B. Durand (Marseille), F. Denis (Lille), E. Formenti (Marseille), S. Grigorieff (Paris), S. Laplante (Paris), J.-Y. Marion (Nancy) Organizing Committee ==================== B. Durand (Marseille), J. Cervelle (Marseille), E. Formenti (Marseille), S. Laplante (Paris) Important dates =============== REGISTRATION: May 25, 2001. (Very important!) It is very important for us to know the number of expected participants precisely since we have to pay in advance for the accommodations. If you are planning to come please register as soon as possible. (Payment for housing will be made at a later date.) Submission deadline: June 30, 2001 <---- DEADLINE Prices ====== Prices include breakfast, lunch, dinner and accommodations. There is no registration fee. There are 15 double rooms and 10 single rooms: 400FF per person, per night (double room) 450FF per person, per night (single room) Prices may decrease depending on pending institutional financial support. Accommodations can also be arranged at hotels on the island. Please see http://www.porquerolles.net/sejourner/index_sejourner.htm for a list of alternate accommodations. Further Information ==================== E-mail: mailto:eforment@cmi.univ-mrs.fr WWW: http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~eforment/confs/tai2001/tai_main.html %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TAI 2001 ANNOUNCEMENT - TAI 2001 ANNOUNCEMENT We apologize for multiple copies %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 17:14:38 +0200 (CEST) From: Olivier Bousquet X-Sender: bousquet@georgev.polytechnique.fr Subject: Algorithmic Complexity and Genetic Programming Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Dear all, I would like to draw the attention of people interested in Kolmogorov Complexity to the following message posted by Thomas English on the Genetic Algorithms mailing list (see at the end of this message). In broad terms, the goal of Genetic Programming is to identify a computable function by stochastic search in the space of all programs. The search is guided by the 'fitness' which is a measure of how 'close' a program is to the target (e.g. how close their ouputs are on a specific input or on a set of inputs). The way the space is searched depends on 'genetic operators' which transform single programs or pairs of programs into new programs. Of course, one would like to identify the target faster than using pure random search in the huge space of all programs. Obviously, this can only be achieved if one has some prior knowledge about where the target lies in the space (e.g. the maximum length of the corresponding program). This is known as the No Free Lunch problem (NFL). It thus seems to me that Genetic Programming is indeed related to Levin's search (see e.g. a recent paper by Marcus Hutter - reference in an earlier post) and that some of the issues in Genetic Programming could be addressed by Algorithmic Complexity as Thomas English already noticed. I thus hope to see in the near future a growing interaction between these fields. Regards, Olivier Bousquet. ---------- Sender: Thomas English Subject: NFL and algorithmic complexity Considerations of algorithmic complexity in "no free lunch" (NFL) depend critically upon whether one is treating optimization or learning [1]. Here I limit my comments to optimization. It has been suggested that bounding the algorithmic complexity of test functions results in a "free nibble"--i.e., a small superiority for some optimizers over others. In reality, the bound does not suffice. NFL is a property of the distribution of functions, and can be exhibited even if the distribution is defined on a set of functions of very low algorithmic complexity. For instance, there is no free lunch if functions are drawn uniformly from the set of all "needle-in-a-haystack" functions mapping exactly one domain element to 1 and all other domain elements to 0 [2]. The functions in this set are of very low algorithmic complexity, so no complexity bound of practical interest rules out the possibility of an NFL distribution of test functions. It is interesting to note that the uniform distribution on needle-in-a-haystack functions is both the hardest to maximize and the easiest (of all distributions excluding constant functions) to minimize. That is, a single NFL distribution can be exceedingly benign or perverse, depending upon the optimization objective. Thomas English Tom.English@ieee.org [1] English, T. M. 2000. "Optimization is easy and learning is hard in the typical function," Proceedings of 2000 Congress on Evolutionary Computation: CEC00, pp. 924-931 (http://members.door.net/tmenglish/cec2000.pdf). [2] English, T. M. 1996. "Evaluation of evolutionary and genetic optimizers: No free lunch," Evolutionary Programming V: Proc. of the Fifth Ann. Conf. on Evolutionary Programming, L. J. Fogel, P. J. Angeline, and T. Baeck, eds., pp 163-169. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Paul Cockshott To: Olivier Bousquet Subject: Re: Algorithmic Complexity and Genetic Programming Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 12:13:58 +0100 References: Message-Id: <0105161215190L.05183@pickersgill> When doing experiments in using genetic programming to predict economic time series, I have build the Kolgomorov cost of the formula produced into the fitness function- otherwise one can end up with arbitrarily complex formulae which match the data arbitrarily closely. Paul Cockshott, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland 0141 330 3125 mobile:07946 476966 paul@cockshott.com http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/people/personal/wpc/ http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~wpc/reports/index.html _____________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "Bush, Stephen F (CRD)" Subject: Software Library of Kolmogorov Complexity Related Functions Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 15:25:56 -0400 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19) Sender: kolmogorov-return-40-16817135@listbot.com Is anyone aware of a software library of Kolmogorov Complexity related functions (preferably Java packages)? I'm thinking in terms of a package of objects that use various techniques to estimate K. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks, Steve Bush ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Sat, 26 May 2001 10:58:05 +0200 (MEST) Message-Id: <200105260858.f4Q8w5T29831@lri.lri.fr> From: Sophie.Laplante@lri.fr Subject: TAI 2001 registration deadline extended Sender: kolmogorov-return-42-16817135@listbot.com Kolmogorov Complexity - http://www.cmap.polytechnique.fr/~bousquet/kolmogorov.html --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TAI 2001 Workshop on Algorithmic Information Theory REGISTRATION DEADLINE %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ********************************************** * TAI 2001 * * * * September 24-26, 2001 * * Porquerolles, Hyeres - France * ********************************************** TAI 2001 is the fifth annual workshop on Algorithmic Information Theory and Kolmogorov complexity. The registration deadline has been extended to JUNE 2, 2001. Please see the web site below for more information. E-mail: mailto:eforment@cmi.univ-mrs.fr WWW: http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~eforment/confs/tai2001/tai_main.html %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% TAI 2001 REGISTRATION DEADLINE %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "P. Vitanyi" Received: (from paulv@localhost) by kuip.cwi.nl (8.11.0/8.9.3/FLW-3.2C) id f4RMdnY12247 for kolmogorov@listbot.com; Mon, 28 May 2001 00:39:49 +0200 Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 00:39:49 +0200 Message-Id: <200105272239.f4RMdnY12247@kuip.cwi.nl> Subject: Your help for 3rd Edition Li-Vitanyi is sollicited Dear All, We are preparing the 3rd Edition of "Ming Li, Paul Vitanyi, An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and Its Applications, Springer-Verlag, 1997 (2nd Ed.). The area has meanwhile increased to such an extend that it is impossible (at least for us) to keep track of the publications and results. We would like to ask you to send us the following information about you and your co-authors and immediate collaegues: a) A list of publications from 1997 onwards (or not appearing in the 1997 edition) b) A short writeup of the major results as a LaTeX fragment or plain text, not exceeding 1-2 pages in total. Roughly, in the style of the exercises in the earlier editions. c) A list of *final* publications in technical journals and colections having appeared from 1997 onwards (or not bibliographed in the 1997 edition). We will probably include all final journal publications in the bibliography, and select results to either expand in the main text or enter as exercises. Note that it will probably not be possible to enter everything anyway, since the current edition is already too thick. We will have to severely select material: a simple, short, and instantly understandable writeup from you can help us make a good selection. Please send the above by email to Paul.Vitanyi@cwi.nl Thank you very much in advance for your help, Ming Li Paul Vitanyi ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 16:19:17 +0200 Subject: Question on Monotonic Complexity From: "Gerard Pinson" Mime-version: 1.0 Sender: kolmogorov-return-44-16817135@listbot.com Dear All, Let KM the so-called "monotonic complexity" . See Uspensky and Shen, Math. Systems Theory, 29, 271-292 (1996) See also Li & Vitanyi, definition 4.5.9 in § 4.5.4 ("monotone complexity", marked Km). KM is defined in the usual way, as the length of the shortest description : KM(x) = min{l(p):U(p)=x} where p and x are both prefixed. Questions : Is Km additive ? ie : Km(x,y) = Km(x) + Km(y|x) ? Subadditive ? ie : Km(x,y) =< Km(x) + Km(y) ? Symmetric ? ie : Km(x:y) = Km(y:x) ? Regards, Gerard Pinson pinson.g@wanadoo.fr ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "P. Vitanyi" Received: (from paulv@localhost) by kuip.cwi.nl (8.11.0/8.9.3/FLW-3.2C) id f4VJ1l312565; Thu, 31 May 2001 21:01:47 +0200 Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 21:01:47 +0200 Message-Id: <200105311901.f4VJ1l312565@kuip.cwi.nl> Subject: Re: Question on Monotonic Complexity Sender: kolmogorov-return-45-16817135@listbot.com All these properties hold for Km up to an additive log error term. The additive property has a log error term that cannot be improved. The subadditive property follows from the additive one. Symmetry Im(x:y)=Im(y:x) up to log additve term follows from the additive property. Cheers, Paul ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Allan Erskine Subject: query: learning rates for high K-complexity solutions Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 00:09:57 +0100 Message-ID: <00a901c0f202$7a8f4540$ea4dfea9@spukny> MIME-Version: 1.0 Greetings all, In lieu of the recent post on genetic programming and Kolmogorov complexity, I have a query along slightly different lines, and was hoping an expert could advise. I'm researching relationships between Kolmogorov (K-) complexity and machine learning; the advice I seek is on the worthiness of my research proposal (e.g. don't bother/done before in [x], or good idea/try looking at [y]). Short version of research proposal is to investigate the following (assuming we've phrased some learning problem in a suitable way for this analysis): Identify difficult learning problems with those having high K-complexity for any (representation of a) near-optimal solution. Suppose we're told in advance that any optimal solution to a learning problem is going to have high K-complexity, say k, and suppose further that this is much larger than the size n of the learning algorithm we intend to use, i.e. n << k. Does this imposes the constraint of either exponential learning time in poly(k-n), or sub-exponential learning time in poly(k-n) but only at the expense of the learning environment "giving the game away", ie somehow pinpointing the solution out of all 2^k programs for complexity k solutions? Or shorter still: I propose to research lower bounds on the running time of certain learning algorithms based on the minimum complexity k of any near-optimal solution and the size n of the learning algorithm. Many thanks in advance of any help or comments, Allan Erskine (PhD student, UCL) ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "P. Vitanyi" Received: (from paulv@localhost) by kuip.cwi.nl (8.11.0/8.9.3/FLW-3.2C) id f5BG8Om09196; Mon, 11 Jun 2001 18:08:24 +0200 Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 18:08:24 +0200 Message-Id: <200106111608.f5BG8Om09196@kuip.cwi.nl> Subject: Re: query: learning rates for high K-complexity solutions Sender: kolmogorov-return-47-16817135@listbot.com That of course makes sense. This idea is formalized in Exercise 5.3.7 (page 338) of Li-Vitanyi 2nd edition of 1997, and more extensively in Li-Vitanyi 1st edition of 1993 Section 5.4.4 on pp 294-295. There it is done without time bounds (in terms of plain complexity). If you do the same thing in terrms of timebounded KC then you will obtain your goal below. The matter is a little subtle, and I believe there can be many ramifications. Cheers, Paul Vitanyi ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Allan Erskine Subject: RE: query: learning rates for high K-complexity solutions Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 04:30:50 +0100 Message-ID: <000b01c0f54b$97023330$ea4dfea9@spukny> MIME-Version: 1.0 Thanks Paul for the encouraging reply and for the lead - as it happens my copy of LV was lying open very near that exercise. I'm definitely finding the matter more than a little subtle; for anyone that is interested though, I have found reinforcement learning to be a nice area to study in regards to learning rates vs solution complexity (see appended note). I'll post again if I make progress in this direction, or have further queries. Thanks again, Allan --- note on RL Briefly, the process of reinforcement learning can be viewed as a sequence of interactions with an environment having the following structure (at time step i): - the environment E takes on some state s_i - based on the state s_i, the reinforcement learner chooses an action, a_i - the learner receives a scalar reward r_i depending on the utility of its action Calling a triple (s,a,r) an interaction, reinforcement learning can be viewed as a stochastic process RL=I_0 I_1 I_2... of interactions, governed by some distribution P(I_0 I_1 ... I_n) that a certain sequence of interactions is observed (the distribution encompasses the learner, the environment, and the reward signal). But with a prefix-free binary encoding of the triples I, we can also view reinforcement learning as governed by a distribution \mu(B_0 B_1 ... B_n) over binary strings. This leaves us in a similar situation to Solmonoff's formulation of induction which feels like a healthy place to begin studying notions of program size vs learning rates. Of course, here's where the subtleties begin, the first being that we need to separate out the learners contribution to the overall distribution \mu... All comments/queries most welcome! ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "Marcus Hutter" References: <000b01c0f54b$97023330$ea4dfea9@spukny> Subject: Re: query: learning rates for high K-complexity solutions Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 10:25:41 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Allan Erskine, The community of researchers trying to unify reinforecment learning with Solomonoff's algorithmic probability seems to increase. I have already written up a lot of things. Probably you know already, but just in case not: See "A Universal Theory of Artificial Intelligence based on Algorithmic Probability and Sequential Decisions" ftp://ftp.idsia.ch/pub/techrep/IDSIA-14-00.ps.gz (8 pages) http://www.hutter1.de/ai/pkcunai.htm (62 pages) James Rogers tries similar things http://www.sysopmind.com/archive-sl4/0104/0253.html and Juergen Schmidhuber is around already for a long time :-) http://www.idsia.ch/~juergen Your final comment is very important: > Of course, here's where the subtleties begin, the first being that we need > to separate out the learners contribution to the overall distribution \mu... I stumbled over this problem very early in my attempts with the following solution: The problem with P(I_0 I_1 ... I_n) is that it contains it's own action. If you use Solomonoffs universal distribution M for P the following happens. M is only enumerable, but not computable, the optimal action is then only approximable, but not enumerable, hence the agent itself does not satisfy the computability assumption, and is hence itself not dominated by M. (The problems show also up if you scale everything down to time-bounded distributions and agents) On the other hand, domination is important for convergence M->mu. The way to avoid this is to consider from the very beginning conditional probabilities P(s_1 r_1...s_n r_n|a_1..a_n), since probabilities of a_i's are not needed anyway. M can be defined as the 2^-l(p) weighted sum over all programs p computing s_1 r_1...s_n r_n when a_1..a_n is on the INPUT tape. See http://www.hutter1.de/ai/pkcunai.htm for details. Cheers Marcus --- Dr. Marcus Hutter, IDSIA Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale Galleria 2 CH-6928 Manno(Lugano) - Switzerland Phone: +41-91-6108667 Fax: +41-91-6108661 E-mail marcus@idsia.ch http://www.idsia.ch/~marcus ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: Allan Erskine Subject: RE: query: learning rates for high K-complexity solutions Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2001 19:39:28 +0100 Message-ID: <004f01c0f9b8$58ad1250$ea4dfea9@spukny> MIME-Version: 1.0 Thanks, Marcus, for the interesting mail...I hadn't discovered your recent generalisations to Solmonoff's induction. So far I've only had time to skim through your papers - I'm looking forward to going over them in more detail. I'm using the O(n2^l) bound you (and others) have as the departure point for my investigations. Loosely, if it takes a program of at least size k to describe the behaviour of an agent behaving optimally over n time steps (ie if the algorithmic minimal statistic for any range of optimal n-length behaviours is of minimum size k), then that program can be found by coin tossing or by enumeration in time O(n2^k). So here k represents the amount of structure, or sophistication, in any optimal solution. Difficult learning problems can be identified with those requiring highly structured solutions, and they ought to be hard to find. It makes sense to consider O(n2^k) as the zero point for consideration of learning algorithms then - any algorithm running in this time to discover high k structured solutions should be considered "as bad as it gets". My hypothesis is that all constant size algorithms are "as bad as it gets" in a certain sense, and I'm trying to work to give a rigorous characterisation of algorithms considered heuristically by Solmonoff, Minsky, Lenat etc that can "grow" to exploit structure. My goal having characterised "fixed" vs "growing" algorithms is to give _any_ sort of existence proof of some "growing" algorithm minorising all "fixed" algorithms in running time. All I can say with certainty for now though is I'm finding the matter very slippery indeed, and of course, all help and comments greatly appreciated! Allan ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: dld@mail.csse.monash.edu.au Received: (from dld@localhost) by fangorn.csse.monash.edu.au (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) id AAA11244 for bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr; Mon, 1 Oct 2001 00:34:33 +1000 (EST) Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 00:34:33 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <200109301434.AAA11244@fangorn.csse.monash.edu.au> To: bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr Subject: Research Fellows in Information Technology Dear Cher Olivier, Hi. Could you please forward this ad to the Kolmogorov e-mail list? Ta. David. Research Fellows in Information Technology ------------------------------------------ As part of its goal to cement its position as Australia's premier academic institution for information technology research, the Faculty of Information Technology of Monash University has established the IT Research Fellowship Scheme to attract outstanding early career researchers in any field of information technology to Monash University. The positions are for up to 3 years and the salary is in the Research Fellow Level B range Aus$50,847 - Aus$60,382 per annum depending on experience. In addition Fellowship holders are eligible for a Research Support Grants which can be up to Aus$10,000 per annum depending on the needs of the research program. Return airfares may be available for successful interstate/overseas candidates and their dependants. The Faculty of Information Technology was created in 1990. It is Australia's largest faculty exclusively devoted to information technology with 190 academics. It has an enviable research reputation in virtually all aspects of information technology and produces more research postgraduates than any other Australian university. Research in the Faculty is centred around: artificial intelligence; machine learning; statistics and Minimum Message Length (developed initially at Monash by Wallace and Boulton in 1968, and surveyed by Wallace and Dowe in the Computer Journal, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp270-283, 1999); intelligent decision support; operations research; distributed systems, mobile computing and software engineering; information systems and information management; digital communications and multimedia; and computer education. Location: Appointees may be based at Clayton (where the MML research group is), Caulfield, Peninsula, Gippsland or Berwick campuses. Contact: Further information and particulars of the application procedure may be obtained from A/Prof. Kim Marriott, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Information Technology telephone +61 3 9905 5525, facsimile +61 3 9905 5146, e-mail: adr@infotech.monash.edu.au Applications: Ms M Jones-Roberts, Manager, Research Services, Faculty of Information Technology, P.O. Box 197, Caulfield East, Vic 3145 by 19/10/01. Quote Ref No. A013055 and include a completed application form. The position description, selection criteria, background information and application form are available at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/sta_pv_research.html From bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr Wed Oct 10 09:44:03 2001 +0200 Status: R X-Status: X-Keywords: Return-Path: Received: from x-mailer.polytechnique.fr (x-mailer.polytechnique.fr [129.104.35.1]) by barbes.polytechnique.fr (8.9.3/x.y.z) with ESMTP id JAA15169 for ; Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:44:02 +0200 Received: from mlist-0.sp.cs.cmu.edu (MLIST-0.SP.CS.CMU.EDU [128.2.198.105]) by x-mailer.polytechnique.fr (x.y.z/x.y.z) with SMTP id JAA11367 for ; Wed, 10 Oct 2001 09:44:12 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mlist-0.sp.cs.cmu.edu by mlist-0.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa23671; 10 Oct 2001 3:14 EDT Received: from AMMON.BOLTZ.CS.CMU.EDU by mlist-0.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa23667; 10 Oct 2001 3:08 EDT Received: from ammon.boltz.cs.cmu.edu by ammon.boltz.cs.cmu.edu id aa16660; 10 Oct 2001 3:07 EDT Received: from RI.CMU.EDU by ux3.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa12997; 10 Oct 2001 1:52 EDT Received: from bruce.csse.monash.edu.au by ri.cmu.edu id aa12076; 10 Oct 2001 1:51 EDT Received: (from dld@localhost) by bruce.csse.monash.edu.au (8.10.2+Sun/8.10.2) id f9A5nSG27946; Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:49:28 +1000 (EST) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:49:28 +1000 (EST) From: David L Dowe Message-Id: <200110100549.f9A5nSG27946@bruce.csse.monash.edu.au> Subject: Research Fellows in Machine Learning at Monash University Dear all, Apologies for any cross-posting. Below is an advertisement for Research Fellows in Information Technology at Monash University. If you are interested in machine learning and machine learning by Minimum Message Length (MML), then I warmly invite you to read the advertisement below for Research Fellows, for which the application deadline is Friday 19th October. David Dowe. http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~dld/MML.html ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 21:13:59 +1000 (EST) From: David L Dowe Message-Id: <200110251113.f9PBDx602847@bruce.csse.monash.edu.au> To: bousquet@cmapx.polytechnique.fr Subject: Adv. for Lecturer/Senior Lecturer position (in MML) at Monash > From michelle.ketchen@csse.monash.edu.au Thu Oct 25 20:53:05 2001 > Subject: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer > To: allcsse@monash.edu.au > > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > > --Boundary_(ID_COe8esqBqWVP0uFKOFDyMQ) > Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT > > Hi everyone, > > The advetisement below will be appearing in the Age and Australian next week. > > Thanks > Michelle _________________________________________________ Lecturer/Senior Lecturer Up to 4 positions available School of Computer Science and Software Engineering The School of Computer Science and Software Engineering is one of five schools within the Monash University Faculty of Information Technology. The School employs over 60 academic staff on the Caulfield and Clayton campuses. Research interests within the school encompass software engineering; mobile and distributed systems; computer education; database systems and information retrieval; distributed, parallel and mobile computing; graphics and image processing; logic and theory; artificial intelligence and machine learning primarily by Minimum Message Length (MML); communications and digital signal processing; digital systems hardware and architecture. The school offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs including the Bachelor of Computing, Computer Science, Software Engineering and Digital Systems and has a strong honours and PhD program. Applications for the position of Lecturer should have a PhD and a strong research record, with a proven ability to teach at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Teaching areas in particular demand include Parallel and Cluster Computing, Software Engineering, Distributed Object Technology, Data Communications and Programming Languages. Applicants for a senior lectureship must also demonstrate proven leadership abilities in areas including academic administration, research management and industry collaboration. CSSE Web site: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/ Appointment will be made at a level appropriate to the successful applicant's qualifications, experience and in accordance with classification standards for each level. The Benefits: $50,847 - $60,382 p.a. Lecturer $62,288 - $71,822 p.a. Senior Lecturer Location: Positions are available at Caulfield and Clayton. Teaching on both the Caulfield and Clayton campuses as required. Contact: Ms Michelle Ketchen, Tel (03) 9903 2488 or email: michelle.ketchen@csse.monash.edu.au for inquiries and a copy of the position description. Applications: Ms M Ketchen, Administration Manager, CSSE, PO Box 197, Caulfield East, VIC 3145 by 28/11/01. Quote Ref No. A013148 and include curriculum vitae and the names (with phone and facsimile numbers) of three referees in your application. "Monash University reserves the right to make multiple appointments in regard to each advertised position". An Equal Opportunity Employer. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to kolmogorov-unsubscribe@listbot.com From: "Bush, Stephen F (CRD)" > To: "'Kolmogorov-List'" > Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2001 2:57 PM Subject: RE: Kolmogorov Mailing List I am glad to see that this list is still alive. We are trying to establish a tighter bridge between folks studying complexity and those who are studying communication networks. We are inviting experts in the field of Complexity Theory, not necessarily in communication networks, to submit papers to a complexity and networking conference. Details on the conference session can be found in . Please forward this to others who may be interested. Thanks, Steve Bush ____________________________________________________________ to unsubscribe write to Kolmogorov-List@gmx.net with subject unsubscribe From: "Vladik Kreinovich" > To: > Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 12:38 AM Subject: FYI: an expert system using Kolmogorov complexity Dear Friends, Since the list has been revived, I am re-posting my message which I could not post due to the previous list's demise. Yours Vladik **************************************************************************** Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 14:55:01 -0600 (MDT) From: Vladik Kreinovich > Dear Friends, At a recent IEEE Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Stuart H. Rubin >from the Navy Research Center in San Diego presented a talk in which he described a working expert system that, among other innovative ideas, uses the idea of Kolmogorov complexity. He is a specialist in intelligent system, and he was unaware that there is a thriving Kolmogorov complexity community which, among other things, is interested in applications. I therefore believe that it will be useful if I send this information to the mailing list, so that interested people can look at his papers and, if necessary, contact him directly; his email is srubin@spawar.navy.mil I did not look into the details of his use, I am waiting for the conference proceedings which will hopefully come shortly. Meanwhile, I am attaching a list of some of his papers that describe the use of Kolmogorov complexity in the design and use of intelligent systems. He has many, so if you are interested, you may contact him. Vladik ------------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------- From: "Stuart H. Rubin" > To: "Vladik Kreinovich" > Vladik: This should be what you requested. cheers, Stuart S. H. Rubin, Evolving intelligent software processes, Intern. J. Comp. Sci. & Info. Mgt., at the invitation of R. Lee (Senior ed.), spring 2001, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 47-58. S. H. Rubin, A heuristic logic for randomization in fuzzy mining, J. Control and Intelligent Systems, at the invitation of M.H. Hamza (ed. in chief), 1999, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 26-39. S. H. Rubin, Computing with words, IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern.: Part B, at the invitation of K.R. Pattipati, ed., submitted 6/19/98, SMC 098-06-B626, accepted as a regular paper Nov. 10, 1998, vol. 29, no. 4, Aug. 1999, pp. 518-524: email: krishna@sol.uconn.edu (for files) and krishna@snet.net otherwise. S. H. Rubin, A fuzzy approach towards inferential data mining, Computers and Industrial Engineering, at the invitation of H. Eldin, 1998, vol. 35, nos. 1-2, pp. 267-270; reference CAIE 1152, journal code 399, papers at , email to t.ewers@elsevier.co.uk (i.e., tennille Ewers) tel. (+44) (0) 1865 843000, 25 free offprints requested June 19, 1998. ____________________________________________________________ to unsubscribe write to Kolmogorov-List@gmx.net with subject unsubscribe From: "Nikolai Vereshchagin" > To: "Kolmogorov-List" > Cc: >; >; >; > Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 8:29 AM Subject: two meanings of the term "stochastic" Dear collegues; I want to discuss a terminology confusion concerning the usage of the term "stochastic" in the Kolmogorov complexity literature. I eighties Kolmogorov proposed a definition of an \alpha,\beta-stochastic string. An \alpha,\beta-stochastic string is a string $x$ that belongs to a set $A$ of complexity at most \alpha such that the randomness deficiency of $x$ in $A$, $\log|A|-K(x|A)$, is at most $\beta$. This definition was used in Shen's (1983), Vyugin's papers and in the Muchnik-Semenov-Uspensky paper. On the other hand, in 1987 Kolmogorov and Uspensky launched the use of word "stochastic" to denote something different. Namely, an infinite binary sequence in which the frequency of 1s is close to 1/2 and the same holds for all subsequences chosen by amissible rules. Depending on what is an admissible rule they used terms "Church stochastic", "Kolmogorov--Loveland stochastic" etc. Formaly ther terms "stochastic" and "\alpha,\beta-stochastic" are different. However I find this situation unsatisfactory. My proposal is to choose another term to refer to sequences with frequency stability properties. For instance, "balanced sequences". Then an \alpha,\beta-balanced string would be a string from which any selection rule of complexity at most $\alpha$ selects a subsequence in which deviation of the frequency of 1s from 1/2 is at most \beta (no term for this notion exists now). And a "stochastic" sequence would be an infinite sequence that is Martin--Lof random with respect to some computable measure (Levin used the term "random" for this notion, and Muchnik-Semenov-Uspensky the term "natural"). Nikolai Vereshchagin. ____________________________________________________________ to unsubscribe write to Kolmogorov-List@gmx.net with subject unsubscribe From: "Vladik Kreinovich" > To: > Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2001 9:40 PM Subject: conference of possible interest to us Dear Friends, This conference specificvally emphasizes a minisymposium on chaos, algorithms, and complexity. In general, applications of Kolmogorov complexity to physics and mechanics are welcome. Vladik **************************************************************************** ** From: "Anton Krivtsov" Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 3:26 AM Subject: APM'2002 Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the organizing committee of APM'2002 we would like to invite you to the conference "Advanced Problems in Mechanics - 2002". The conference is being hosted by Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of Russian Academy of Sciences and will take place June 27 - July 6, 2002 at a suburb of St. Petersburg on the bank of Baltic Sea. APM'2002 will be the 30th in the series of annual summer schools held by Russian Academy of Sciences. The topic of APM'2002 is wide and covers almost all fields of fundamental and applied mechanics. Please find the first announcement of APM'2002 enclosed to this letter. You can also find the detailed information at the website of the conference: We are looking forward to meet you in St. Petersburg this summer. Yours sincerely, Prof. Dmitry A. Indeitsev Chairman of the Scientific Committee Dr. Anton M. Krivtsov Chairman of the Organizing Committee ------------------------------------------------ XXX Summer School "Advanced Problems in Mechanics" June 27-July 6, 2002, St. Petersburg, Russia First Announcement A P M 2 0 0 2 To receive our announcements, please send a void e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to apm2002@eng.abdn.ac.uk GENERAL INFORMATION The Summer school Advanced Problems in Mechanics 2002 is organized by the Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IPME RAS) under the patronage of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Gesellschaft fuer Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (GAMM). The main purpose of the meeting is to gather specialists from different branches of mechanics to provide a platform for cross-fertilisation of ideas. HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL The first Summer School was organized by A.I. Lurie and Ya.G. Panovko in 1971. In the early years the main focus of the School was on nonlinear oscillations of mechanical systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. The School specialized in this way because at that time in Russia (USSR) there were held regular National Meetings on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and also there were many conferences on mechanics with a more particular specialization. After 1985 many conferences and schools on mechanics in Russia were terminated due to financial problems. In 1994 the Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences restarted the Summer School. The traditional name of "Summer School" has been kept, but the topics covered by the School have been much widened, and the School has been transformed into an international conference. The topics of the School cover now all fields of mechanics and associated into interdisciplinary problems. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE (changes are possible) * A.K. Abramian (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg) * V.V. Beletsky (Space Research Institute, Moscow) * A.K. Belyaev (St. Petersburg State Technical University) * I.I. Blekhman (IPME RAS, Mechanobr Research Institute, St. Petersburg) * S.N. Gavrilov (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg) * S.F. Golovaschenko (Ford Motor Company, USA) * A. Guran (Institute of Structronics, Ottawa, Canada) * D. Harris (University of Manchester, UK) * A.B. Freidin (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg) * D.A. Indeitsev (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg) -- Co-Chairman * E.A. Ivanova (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg State Technical University) * N.G. Kuznetsov (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg) * D.P. Kouzov (IPME RAS, Marine Technical University) * A.M. Krivtsov (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg State Technical University) * I.A. Kunin (University of Houston, USA) * G.A. Leonov (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg State University) * M. McIver (Loughborough University, UK) * P. McIver (Loughborough University, UK) * N.F. Morozov (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg State University) * V.A. Palmov (St. Petersburg State Technical University) -- Co-Chairman * Y.G. Panovko (IPME RAS) * H. Troger (Technical University of Wien, Austria) * M. Wiercigroch (University of Aberdeen, UK) * P.A. Zhilin (IPME RAS, St. Petersburg State Technical University) * F. Ziegler (Technical University of Wien, Austria) LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE A.M. Krivtsov, St.Petersburg State Technical University, IPME RAS - Chairman A.D. Firsova, IPME RAS S.N. Gavrilov, IPME RAS E.F. Grekova, IPME RAS E.A. Ivanova, St.Petersburg State Technical University, IPME RAS - Scientific Secretary A.D. Sergeev, IPME RAS E.V. Serogo, IPME RAS L. Sharipova, IPME RAS E.V. Shishkina, IPME RAS SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM Presentations devoted to fundamental aspects of mechanics, or spreading the field of applications of mechanics, are invited. We are particularly keen to receive contributions that SHOW NEW EFFECTS AND PHENOMENA OR DEVELOP NEW MATHEMATICAL MODELS. The topics of the School cover all fields of mechanics, including, but not restricted, to * mechanics of non-classical media * solids and structures * phase transitions * nanostructures and thin films * wave motion * nonlinear dynamics, chaos and vibration * dynamics of rigid bodies and multibody dynamics * computational mechanics * mechanical and civil engineering applications Four different forms of presentations are offered, namely, plenary lectures (1 hour), presentations at minisymposia (30 minutes), short communications (20 minutes), and posters. The working language is English. For the attention of Russian participants: the Russian language as an exception can be used only in posters, but even for posters English is strongly recommended. Regrettably we can not provide simultaneous translation, and due to the international nature of the School all the oral presentations must be in English. MINISYMPOSIA AND CHAIRS (to be completed) * Chaos - Algorithms - Complexity (I.A. Kunin) * Mechatronics and structronics (A.K. Belyaev and H. Irschik) * Multibody dynamics (E. Ivanova and H. Yoshimura) * Nonlinear oscillations and stability (H. Troger and A.M. Krivtsov) * Synchronization (I.I. Blekhman) * Technological Plasticity (S.E. Alexandrov) * Wave localization in continuous media (N.G. Kuznetsov, P. McIver, M. McIver) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS AND IMPORTANT DATES Details concerning abstract submission and other organizational details will be available at our website and in subsequent announcements. If you wish to receive them, please send a void e-mail with the subject "subscribe" to apm2002@eng.abdn.ac.uk Deadlines: * Abstract submission: January 15, 2002. * Notification of acceptance: March 1, 2002. * Submission of a visa form (required to issue the invitation to Russia): March 31, 2002. * Paper submission: June 27, 2002. * Conference: June 27-July 6, 2002. REGISTRATION FEE The conference fee is $190 for foreign participants and covers the invitation costs, postage, proceedings, social program, and organizational costs. The fee for foreign accompanying persons is $60 and covers the invitation costs, postage, and social program. The reduced conference fee of $15 for participants from Russia partially covers the postage and proceedings. CONFERENCE SITE It is planned to hold the School in a suburb of St. Petersburg. The exact location will be determined later. Please look at our website for up-to-date information. ST. PETERSBURG In June St. Petersburg has nice warm weather and the famous white nights can be experienced. St. Petersburg is called the "Venice of the North", since it is located among numerous rivers and channels of the delta of the Neva river. St. Petersburg is in fact the "cultural capital" of Russia. The magnificent Hermitage and Russian Museum give a flavour of the cultural image of the city, where numerous theatres and the famous Russian ballet can be found. For those more inclined towards nature, the Russian czars' residences, for example Pavlovsk, Peterhoff, and Pushkin, can offer a pleasant visit; or alternatively one can take an unforgettable boat trip through river Neva and the city channels. ================================================================= == APM'2002 == == Institute of Problems of Mechanical Engineering == == of Russian Academy of Sciences == == Bolshoy pr. V.O., 61, St.Petersburg, 199178, Russia == == Phone: +7(812)-3214772; == == Fax : +7(812)-3214771 == == == == E-mail: apm2002@eng.abdn.ac.uk == ================================================================= ____________________________________________________________ to unsubscribe write to Kolmogorov-List@gmx.net with subject unsubscribe