In what ways do our brains use compression? I am reading a book on information theory and one line in the book states that "Brains are the ultimate compression and communication systems." However, there is no further elaboration on the matter. I am curious to know what specifically this sentence may be referring to. In particular, how does the brain demonstrate compression?
Say for example, you know what a particular type of flower looks like. You know it has purple petals and a white center. Now, unbeknownst to you, this flower has been slowly changing (evolving) to have a different shape, size, and even shade over the years since you first had seen one of these flowers. All the while, you have been around this flower your whole life. I mean, it grows in your current backyard, and it also grew in the backyard of the house you grew up in. In this scenario, you may have dreams about when you were a kid playing in the backyard. Instead of seeing what the flowers used to look like (when you actually were a kid), you will most likely see them as they appear to you today. Although your brain has memories of the presence of these flowers in the yard when you were a kid, their actual defining details have been rewritten over time with their current appearance. The hypothesis here is that your brain is trying to conserve capacity by linking all recorded encounters with this type of flower so that they all share the same "image file" in your brain. Witness testimonies have a similar problem -- where data received after the fact can change a person's memory of what happened and how things and people actually looked. I recommend you research the problems known about witness testimony.