Kolmogorov complexity

In algorithmic information theory (a subfield of computer science and mathematics), the Kolmogorov complexity of an object, such as a piece of text, is the length of a shortest computer program (in a predetermined programming language) that produces the object as output. It is a measure of the computational resources needed to specify the object, and is also known as algorithmic complexity, Solomonoff–Kolmogorov–Chaitin complexity, program-size complexity, descriptive complexity, or algorithmic entropy. It is named after Andrey Kolmogorov, who first published on the subject in 1963^[1][2] and is a generalization of classical information theory.

The notion of Kolmogorov complexity can be used to state and prove impossibility results akin to Cantor's diagonal argument, Gödel's incompleteness theorem, and Turing's halting problem. In particular, no program P computing a lower bound for each text's Kolmogorov complexity can return a value essentially larger than P's own length (see section § Chaitin's incompleteness theorem); hence no single program can compute the exact Kolmogorov complexity for infinitely many texts. Kolmogorov complexity is the length of the ultimately compressed version of a file (i.e., anything which can be put in a computer). Formally, it is the length of a shortest program from which the file can be reconstructed. We discuss the incomputability of Kolmogorov complexity, which formal loopholes this leaves us with, recent approaches to compute or approximate Kolmogorov complexity, which approaches are problematic, and which approaches are viable.^[3]