Compression is intelligence

I am not sure what intelligence is, but it seems like intelligence is generally characterized as problem solving competency – which could include decreasing costs (such as time or iterations) of solving a problem, or increasing the potential “height” / “depth” / complexity of the problems solved.

Compression can be thought of as one of the most powerful techniques to increase this problem solving ability. A compressed piece of information (such as a file or an idea) contains more important patterns (fundamentals) per unit of information storage. Some processing units, such as an individual CPU or a brain, are tough to scale up in capacity. For these types of processing units (or really any type of processing unit), transforming information into a compressed form allows them to work with more information.

Examples #

Compressing a chess position into “chunks” of pieces changes the size of the data to process.

A pure beginner processing 32 pieces, and each square each piece is touching, and each square they could be touching on the next move, and the move after that, is a CPU processing tens of thousands of pieces of information, and may achieve, let’s say, 1 iteration per minute (arbitrary baseline).

A better chess player will chunk the pieces into meaningful themes, “compressing” the same position into maybe 15 chunks of information (plans, common structures, piece batteries, tactical patterns, a piece here or there they couldn’t fit into a pattern), achieving, say, 100 iterations per minute and getting a significantly improved problem solving ability (intelligence).

A grandmaster may chunk the same position into 1 or 2 (e.g. “french + Ng5 = “) and may get 10,000 iterations per minute of processing. Josh Waitzkin, an International Master of chess, describes this in his book The Art of Learning (highly recommend for learning how to learn).

Someone who has seen the exact position before will chunk it into 1 if they have ‘memoized’ the best move, and will instantly make their move/solve the problem.

Techniques #

Compression requires themes. “Themes” includes pattern recognition, but also categorization. For long-term improvement, compression requires storage of themes. In this section I will give several techniques for picking up themes to increase compression.

Compression type: Pattern awareness #

This one is pretty basic, and I will not go into depth on it. Essentially, notice/be aware of meaningful patterns that repeat.

Compression type: Categorization #

TLDR chunk with flowcharts to reduce required amount of processing

This is one of the most powerful learning techniques I have come across. Notice different categories situations fall into, then study the general principles for acting in each category. You already do this in some capacity, for example “on weekends -> sleep in, on weekdays -> get up early” or “in summer -> swim, in winter -> drink cocoa”. You don’t have to calculate a million pieces of information, like a beginner in chess, you already know how to “play the position” based on the category of position.

A common chess categorization examples: “Up in material -> simplify the position. If down in material -> cause chaos” “If you have a sharp pawn chain -> attack where it is pointing”

This is a form of chunking. Josh Waitzkin actually calls it chunking.

Compression technique: Recall boosting #

(not sure wtf to call this)

One of the most powerful learning techniques I have come across is the following: Recall situations, and analyze them in your head, in increasing detail each rep (in a progressive-overload fashion).

Why? Over time you 1) pick up patterns from the analysis, and more importantly 2) increase your ability to remember larger numbers of patterns per situation 3) remember increasingly small/nuanced but important patterns and their effects (decrease the threshold for not noticing or remembering certain patterns) 4) increase retrieval speed of patterns in future calculations

How does this work and what does it do?

Great generals, like Caesar and Napoleon, are said to have been able to visualize detailed a map of the terrain of the battlefield in their heads. Practicing visualization increases ability to visualize (I am not sure how much of this is due to compression, or how much is due to neuroplasticity). This increased visualization ability also increases the ability to remember (for some reason it is very easy to remember phenomena you have seen). If you visually recall a situation you went through, the more detail you can recall it in, the more useful patterns you can “scrape” from it. Practicing recall in your head increases your ability to visualize past situations and therefore you can see more details and remember the effects/value of more nuanced patterns.

My personal experience with this

I started out by playing chess games and then trying to recall, in my head, what happened from start to finish. Over time I remember past games better, and learn lessons from those games better. I can remember certain important moments in past games, and apply them to future ones. I had not been able to do this before. It caused me to learn the value of useful patterns, and I noticed/learned things I wouldn’t have been able to find anywhere else except maybe books, such as the queen needing space or the power of white’s seemingly random Ng5 in certain situations.

Waitzkin, a chess IM, mentions briefly how he did intense visualization exercises. Almost all chess GMs I have heard of have incredibly visualization ability AND they remember many many many games they’ve played. One notable player I knew went from ~800 to ~2000 Elo in a year. He played blindfold like a 1600, and learned from watching youtube.

Not a personal example, but a notable non-chess example,is Jeff Bezos’s college friend, who was able to solve an incredibly difficult physics problem by recalling that it was similar to a problem he saw long ago in the past.

My hypothesis is that improving in-your-head recall by practicing in-your-head recall is one of the most effective compression-related techniques for increasing problem-solving ability (and therefore, a form of intelligence).