Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!midway!midway!stephen From: stephen@estragon.uchicago.edu (Stephen P Spackman) Newsgroups: comp.compression Subject: Re: IP gnitaluclaC rof margorP (Was Re: Program for Calculating PI) Message-ID: Date: 13 Apr 91 06:18:12 GMT References: > <1991Apr11.022122.26142@garfield.cs.mun.ca> <1991Apr12.104200.1691@nntp-server.caltech.edu> Sender: news@midway.uchicago.edu (NewsMistress) Organization: University of Chicago CILS Lines: 24 In-Reply-To: madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu's message of 12 Apr 91 10: 42:00 GMT In article <1991Apr12.104200.1691@nntp-server.caltech.edu> madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) writes: I can compress pi infinitely. Here is all of the digits of pi (an infinite number) represented finitely: "The ratio of the circumference of any circle to its diameter". I'm bothered by the absence of a signature. How do I know what language to interpret this string in? The amount of context I have absorbed over my life to enable me to read news in English and understand this little joke is immense. But it's also finite, while the expansion of Pi is not. Which fact causes me to have greivous doubts about the existence of Pi in any meaningful sense. What in fact characterises the set of bitstrings that humans will ever be interested in representing? This is an important question for data modelling. See? We were talking about compression all along. stephen p spackman stephen@estragon.uchicago.edu 312.702.3982