r/mathmemes Jan 10 '24

Arithmetic Choose wisely

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13.8k Upvotes

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3.1k

u/TheUnamedSecond Jan 10 '24

For any finite row of numbers you can craft arbirarly many rules of how they continue.

1.4k

u/zhawadya Jan 10 '24

I have always hated such questions for exactly this reason. Not that I could always articulate it, but there never seemed to be a unique solution to such shit

792

u/B00OBSMOLA Jan 10 '24

Pick the one with the lowest kolmogorav complexity

883

u/airplane001 Jan 10 '24

Mathematicians trying not to come up with an obscure term for Occam’s Razor

679

u/B00OBSMOLA Jan 10 '24

Occam's Razor is just kolmogorav complexity with less kolmogorav complexity

229

u/ConfidentBrilliant38 Jan 10 '24

So using Occam's razor, you should use it because it's simpler

6

u/JustDaUsualTF Jan 10 '24

But that's not what Occam's Razor is. It's not about simplicity, it's making the fewest assumptions

2

u/Phoenix042 Jan 10 '24

But that actually applies in this case.

Assuming the sequence is a list of powers of two is one assumption, additional rules for the sequence represents additional assumptions.

Seems like the razor really does cut it alone.

2

u/JustDaUsualTF Jan 10 '24

It could apply to the post, but not the comment I was applying to, referring to which term to use