compression

What does 'compression' mean?

The essence of science is to uncover patterns and regularities in nature by finding algorithmic compressions of observations. But the raw data of observation rarely exhibit explicit regularities. Instead we find that nature’s order is hidden from us, it is written in code. To make progress in science we need to crack the cosmic code, to dig beneath the raw data and uncover the hidden order. I often liken fundamental science to doing a crossword puzzle. Experiment and observation provide us with clues, but the clues are cryptic, and require some considerable ingenuity to solve. With each new solution, we glimpse a bit more of the overall pattern of nature. As with a crossword, so with the physical universe, we find that the solutions to independent clues link together in a consistent and supportive way to form a coherent unity, so that the more clues we solve, the easier we find it to fill in the missing features.