Abstract:
Rissanen's fertile and pioneering minimum description length principle (MDL) has been viewed from the point of view of statistical estimation theory, information theory, as stochastic complexity theory - i.e., a computable approximation of Kolomogorov Complexity - or Solomonoff's recursion theoretic induction principle or as analogous to Kolmogorov's sufficient statistics. All these - and many more - interpretations are valid, interesting and fertile. In this paper I view it from two points of view: those of an algorithmic economist and a dynamical system theorist. From these points of view I suggest, first, a recasting of Jevon's sceptical vision of induction in the light of MDL; and a complexity interpretation of an undecidable question in dynamics.
