Kolmogorov complexity and poems

Historically rooted in the Von Mises studies of random infinite sequences the Kolmogorov complexity is one of those cases of concepts emerging in different places independently built by individual authors (Solomonoff, Kolmogorov, and Chaitin) as if it urged to be discovered, in this case, pushed by the search of formal definitions for random sequences. Another example from another topic can be the Prim-Jarník algorithm.

We can describe the Kolmogorov complexity as the measure of descriptive complexity contained in an object, or the size of the smaller program necessary to generate some specific output. The search for a definition of randomness by itself can be considered an interesting topic but ahead we will focus on the noticeable similarity between coding and poetry in terms of Kolmogorov complexity.
The python statement below

print("aasidjfopaisjpdofijasd")

Outputs: aasidjfopaisjpdofijasd

While this second statement

print("ab"*11)

Outputs: ababababababababababab

Both outputs have the same length, but the second was generated by a smaller program. It denotes some relation with compression algorithms in terms of practical problem application. It is much more difficult to compress the first sequence of characters due to it’s randomness.

Through poetry, we can recognize many more things than the words being read, declaimed, or sung. If we consider the emotional message, the sense of recognition or the impact and perturbation caused, then the poem can be viewed under the same light as Kolmogorov complexity. A poem can be seen as a package of information and can be viewed, as well, as a program that runs in our brain producing some state of mind that includes emotional response. A good poem has a maximal or suboptimal Kolmogorov compressed representation of a target mental state.

midnight — no waves, no wind
empty boat
flooded with moonlight
                  –Dogen

Ambiguity and interpretability also compose a poem, some space where the reader can navigate and print its own experience. As an exercise of simplification, we can leave the ambiguity aside, abstract it and consider only the “frame” given by the author as the desired mental state.

In general, when choosing the Kolmogorov(or any other) complexity measurement we end up relying upon some arbitrary factor, for example, when we have to select the computer that will calculate that complexity vide Yan LeCun. It is cautious to use the Kolmogorov complexity as more of a thought experiment than something practically calculated, that maner the relation between description and outcome can be related to other topics in life, as in poems.