title: Coincidence, data compression, and Mach’s concept of “economy of thought” creator: Markovitch, J. S. subject: Complexity Theory subject: Philosophy of Science description: A case is made that Mach’s principle of “economy of thought”, and therefore usefulness, is related to the compressibility of data, but that a mathematical expression may compress data for reasons that are sometimes coincidental and sometimes not. An expression, therefore, may be sometimes explainable and sometimes not. A method is proposed for distinguishing coincidental data compression from non-coincidental, where this method may serve as a guide in uncovering new mathematical relationships. The method works by producing a probability that a given mathematical expression achieves its compression purely by chance. date: 2004-06 type: Preprint type: NonPeerReviewed format: application/pdf identifier: http://cogprints.org/3667/1/APRI-PH-2004-12b.pdf identifier: Markovitch, J. S. (2004) Coincidence, data compression, and Mach’s concept of “economy of thought”. [Preprint] relation: http://cogprints.org/3667/