[8394] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Cryptographic Algorithm Metrics
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (burton rosenberg)
Sat Jan 6 20:09:33 2001
Message-ID: <3A55F494.5A5CA07A@cs.miami.edu>
Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 11:21:40 -0500
From: burton rosenberg <burt@math.miami.edu>
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To: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
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There is the concept of Kolomogorov complexity, the size of the
smallest algorithm that can generate the message. A perfectly
compressed message would have Kolomogorov complexity
equal to itself.
Kolomogorov complexity does have a freedom in its definition,
but the exciting thing is that any two definitions will differ only
by a constant.
lcs Mixmaster Remailer wrote:
> "Perfect compression" doesn't make sense anyway. Perfection of
> compression (as with entropy) can be expressed only relative to a specific
> probability distribution of possible inputs. Once you have specified
> such a probability distribution, you can evaluate how well a particular
> compression algorithm works. But speaking of absolute compression or
> absolute entropy is meaningless.
