Computational mechanics, an approach to structural complexity, defines a process's causal states and gives a procedure for finding them. We show that the causal-state representation--an e-machine--is the minimal one consistent with accurate prediction. We establish several results on e-machine...

Computational mechanics is a method for discovering, describing and quantifying patterns, using tools from statistical physics. It contructs optimal, minimal models of stochastic processes and their underlying causal structures. These models tell us about the intrinsic computation embedded...