Compression is creative

It doesn't just subtract. It adds.

“Compression” of information is never just a reduction or loss.

It’s creation and discovery. You construct an alternative way to represent or approximate a thing, often using new building blocks that aren’t even in it.

e.g. 10101010101010101010 can be compressed as: “10” x 10.

Note that the original doesn’t contain quotes “” or mathematical symbols like x.

In other words, you didn’t merely throw out some of the original, but added new things it never contained, like a notion of multiplication or repetition.

Likewise, when we “compress” the complexities of the world, we aren’t just throwing out large parts of it because it’s too much to handle. We are introducing new, powerful ideas it never contained.