Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally) of that which may be sensed, or their abstractions. Any natural process that is not completely random and any observable pattern in any medium can be said to convey some amount of information. Whereas digital signals and other data use discrete signs to convey information, other phenomena and artifacts such as analogue signals, poems, pictures, music or other sounds, and currents convey information in a more continuous form. Information is not knowledge itself, but the meaning that may be derived from a representation through interpretation.
The concept of information is relevant or connected to various concepts, including constraint, communication, control, data, form, education, knowledge, meaning, understanding, mental stimuli, pattern, perception, proposition, representation, and entropy.
Information is often processed iteratively: Data available at one step are processed into information to be interpreted and processed at the next step. For example, in written text each symbol or letter conveys information relevant to the word it is part of, each word conveys information relevant to the phrase it is part of, each phrase conveys information relevant to the sentence it is part of, and so on until at the final step information is interpreted and becomes knowledge in a given domain. In a digital signal, bits may be interpreted into the symbols, letters, numbers, or structures that convey the information available at the next level up. The key characteristic of information is that it is subject to interpretation and processing.
The derivation of information from a signal or message may be thought of as the resolution of ambiguity or uncertainty that arises during the interpretation of patterns within the signal or message.
Information may be structured as data. Redundant data can be compressed up to an optimal size, which is the theoretical limit of compression.
The information available through a collection of data may be derived by analysis. For example, a restaurant collects data from every customer order. That information may be analyzed to produce knowledge that is put to use when the business subsequently wants to identify the most popular or least popular dish.[citation needed]
Information can be transmitted in time, via data storage, and space, via communication and telecommunication. Information is expressed either as the content of a message or through direct or indirect observation. That which is perceived can be construed as a message in its own right, and in that sense, all information is always conveyed as the content of a message.
Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation (for example, information may be encoded into a sequence of signs, or transmitted via a signal). It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication.
The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence. Uncertainty is proportional to the negative logarithm of the probability of occurrence. Information theory takes advantage of this by concluding that more uncertain events require more information to resolve their uncertainty. The bit is a typical unit of information. It is 'that which reduces uncertainty by half'. Other units such as the nat may be used. For example, the information encoded in one "fair" coin flip is log2(2/1) = 1 bit, and in two fair coin flips is log2(4/1) = 2 bits. A 2011 Science article estimates that 97% of technologically stored information was already in digital bits in 2007 and that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage (with digital storage capacity bypassing analogue for the first time).
Etymology
The English word "information" comes from Middle French enformacion/informacion/information 'a criminal investigation' and its etymon, Latin informatiō(n) 'conception, teaching, creation'.
In English, "information" is an uncountable mass noun.
Information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. The field itself was fundamentally established by the work of Claude Shannon in the 1940s, with earlier contributions by Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley in the 1920s. The field is at the intersection of probability theory, statistics, computer science, statistical mechanics, information engineering, and electrical engineering.
A key measure in information theory is entropy. Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process. For example, identifying the outcome of a fair coin flip (with two equally likely outcomes) provides less information (lower entropy) than specifying the outcome from a roll of a die (with six equally likely outcomes). Some other important measures in information theory are mutual information, channel capacity, error exponents, and relative entropy. Important sub-fields of information theory include source coding, algorithmic complexity theory, algorithmic information theory, and information-theoretic security.
There is another opinion regarding the universal definition of information. It lies in the fact that the concept itself has changed along with the change of various historical epochs, and to find such a definition, it is necessary to find standard features and patterns of this transformation. For example, researchers in the field of information Petrichenko E. A. and Semenova V. G., based on a retrospective analysis of changes in the concept of information, give the following universal definition: "Information is a form of transmission of human experience (knowledge)." In their opinion, the change in the essence of the concept of information occurs after various breakthrough technologies for the transfer of experience (knowledge), i.e. the appearance of writing, the printing press, the first encyclopedias, the telegraph, the development of cybernetics, the creation of a microprocessor, the Internet, smartphones, etc. Each new form of experience transfer is a synthesis of the previous ones. That is why we see such a variety of definitions of information, because, according to the law of dialectics "negation-negation", all previous ideas about information are contained in a "filmed" form and in its modern representation.
Applications of fundamental topics of information theory include source coding/data compression (e.g. for ZIP files), and channel coding/error detection and correction (e.g. for DSL). Its impact has been crucial to the success of the Voyager missions to deep space, the invention of the compact disc, the feasibility of mobile phones and the development of the Internet. The theory has also found applications in other areas, including statistical inference,cryptography, neurobiology,perception, linguistics, the evolution and function of molecular codes (bioinformatics), thermal physics,quantum computing, black holes, information retrieval, intelligence gathering, plagiarism detection,pattern recognition, anomaly detection and even art creation.
As sensory input
Often information can be viewed as a type of input to an organism or system. Inputs are of two kinds; some inputs are important to the function of the organism (for example, food) or system (energy) by themselves. In his book Sensory Ecology biophysicist David B. Dusenbery called these causal inputs. Other inputs (information) are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict the occurrence of a causal input at a later time (and perhaps another place). Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input.
In practice, information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or system. For example, light is mainly (but not only, e.g. plants can grow in the direction of the light source) a causal input to plants but for animals it only provides information. The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak for photosynthesis but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs, a nutritional function.
As representation and complexity
The cognitive scientist and applied mathematician Ronaldo Vigo argues that information is a concept that requires at least two related entities to make quantitative sense. These are, any dimensionally defined category of objects S, and any of its subsets R. R, in essence, is a representation of S, or, in other words, conveys representational (and hence, conceptual) information about S. Vigo then defines the amount of information that R conveys about S as the rate of change in the complexity of S whenever the objects in R are removed from S. Under "Vigo information", pattern, invariance, complexity, representation, and information – five fundamental constructs of universal science – are unified under a novel mathematical framework. Among other things, the framework aims to overcome the limitations of Shannon-Weaver information when attempting to characterize and measure subjective information.
As an influence that leads to transformation
Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern. Consider, for example, DNA. The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences the formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind. One might argue though that for a human to consciously define a pattern, for example a nucleotide, naturally involves conscious information processing. However, the existence of unicellular and multicellular organisms, with the complex biochemistry that leads, among other events, to the existence of enzymes and polynucleotides that interact maintaining the biological order and participating in the development of multicellular organisms, precedes by millions of years the emergence of human consciousness and the creation of the scientific culture that produced the chemical nomenclature.
Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense, assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind, and patterns circulating (due to feedback) in the system can be called information. In other words, it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation, though not created or presented for that purpose. For example, Gregory Bateson defines "information" as a "difference that makes a difference".
If, however, the premise of "influence" implies that information has been perceived by a conscious mind and also interpreted by it, the specific context associated with this interpretation may cause the transformation of the information into knowledge. Complex definitions of both "information" and "knowledge" make such semantic and logical analysis difficult, but the condition of "transformation" is an important point in the study of information as it relates to knowledge, especially in the business discipline of knowledge management. In this practice, tools and processes are used to assist a knowledge worker in performing research and making decisions, including steps such as:
- Review information to effectively derive value and meaning
- Reference metadata if available
- Establish relevant context, often from many possible contexts
- Derive new knowledge from the information
- Make decisions or recommendations from the resulting knowledge
Stewart (2001) argues that transformation of information into knowledge is critical, lying at the core of value creation and competitive advantage for the modern enterprise.
In a biological framework, Mizraji has described information as an entity emerging from the interaction of patterns with receptor systems (eg: in molecular or neural receptors capable of interacting with specific patterns, information emerges from those interactions). In addition, he has incorporated the idea of "information catalysts", structures where emerging information promotes the transition from pattern recognition to goal-directed action (for example, the specific transformation of a substrate into a product by an enzyme, or auditory reception of words and the production of an oral response)
The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms argues that information only provides an answer to a posed question. Whether the answer provides knowledge depends on the informed person. So a generalized definition of the concept should be: "Information" = An answer to a specific question".
When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures, he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets. Also, pheromones are often said to be "information" in this sense.
Technologically mediated information
These sections are using measurements of data rather than information, as information cannot be directly measured.
As of 2007
It is estimated that the world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 1986 – which is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-MB CD-ROM per person (539 MB per person) – to 295 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2007. This is the informational equivalent of almost 61 CD-ROM per person in 2007.
The world's combined technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks was the informational equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day in 2007.
The world's combined effective capacity to exchange information through two-way telecommunication networks was the informational equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day in 2007.
As of 2007, an estimated 90% of all new information is digital, mostly stored on hard drives.
As of 2020
The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 64.2 zettabytes in 2020. Over the next five years up to 2025, global data creation is projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes.
As records
Records are specialized forms of information. Essentially, records are information produced consciously or as by-products of business activities or transactions and retained because of their value. Primarily, their value is as evidence of the activities of the organization but they may also be retained for their informational value. Sound records management ensures that the integrity of records is preserved for as long as they are required.[citation needed]
The international standard on records management, ISO 15489, defines records as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business". The International Committee on Archives (ICA) Committee on electronic records defined a record as, "recorded information produced or received in the initiation, conduct or completion of an institutional or individual activity and that comprises content, context and structure sufficient to provide evidence of the activity".
Records may be maintained to retain corporate memory of the organization or to meet legal, fiscal or accountability requirements imposed on the organization. Willis expressed the view that sound management of business records and information delivered "...six key requirements for good corporate governance...transparency; accountability; due process; compliance; meeting statutory and common law requirements; and security of personal and corporate information."
Semiotics
Michael Buckland has classified "information" in terms of its uses: "information as process", "information as knowledge", and "information as thing".
Beynon-Davies explains the multi-faceted concept of information in terms of signs and signal-sign systems. Signs themselves can be considered in terms of four inter-dependent levels, layers or branches of semiotics: pragmatics, semantics, syntax, and empirics. These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technical world on the other.
Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication. Pragmatics links the issue of signs with the context within which signs are used. The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of living agents underlying communicative behaviour. In other words, pragmatics link language to action.
Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act. Semantics considers the content of communication. Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs – the association between signs and behaviour. Semantics can be considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts – particularly the way that signs relate to human behavior.
Syntax is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message. Syntax as an area studies the form of communication in terms of the logic and grammar of sign systems. Syntax is devoted to the study of the form rather than the content of signs and sign systems.
Nielsen (2008) discusses the relationship between semiotics and information in relation to dictionaries. He introduces the concept of lexicographic information costs and refers to the effort a user of a dictionary must make to first find, and then understand data so that they can generate information.
Communication normally exists within the context of some social situation. The social situation sets the context for the intentions conveyed (pragmatics) and the form of communication. In a communicative situation intentions are expressed through messages that comprise collections of inter-related signs taken from a language mutually understood by the agents involved in the communication. Mutual understanding implies that agents involved understand the chosen language in terms of its agreed syntax and semantics. The sender codes the message in the language and sends the message as signals along some communication channel (empirics). The chosen communication channel has inherent properties that determine outcomes such as the speed at which communication can take place, and over what distance.
Physics and determinacy
The existence of information about a closed system is a major concept in both classical physics and quantum mechanics, encompassing the ability, real or theoretical, of an agent to predict the future state of a system based on knowledge gathered during its past and present. Determinism is a philosophical theory holding that causal determination can predict all future events, positing a fully predictable universe described by classical physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace as "the effect of its past and the cause of its future".
Quantum physics instead encodes information as a wave function, which prevents observers from directly identifying all of its possible measurements. Prior to the publication of Bell's theorem, determinists reconciled with this behavior using hidden variable theories, which argued that the information necessary to predict the future of a function must exist, even if it is not accessible for humans; A view surmised by Albert Einstein with the assertion that "God does not play dice".
Modern astronomy cites the mechanical sense of information in the black hole information paradox, positing that, because the complete evaporation of a black hole into Hawking radiation leaves nothing except an expanding cloud of homogeneous particles, this results in the irrecoverability of any information about the matter to have originally crossed the event horizon, violating both classical and quantum assertions against the ability to destroy information.
The application of information study
The information cycle (addressed as a whole or in its distinct components) is of great concern to information technology, information systems, as well as information science. These fields deal with those processes and techniques pertaining to information capture (through sensors) and generation (through computation, formulation or composition), processing (including encoding, encryption, compression, packaging), transmission (including all telecommunication methods), presentation (including visualization / display methods), storage (such as magnetic or optical, including holographic methods), etc.
Information visualization (shortened as InfoVis) depends on the computation and digital representation of data, and assists users in pattern recognition and anomaly detection.
- Partial map of the Internet, with nodes representing IP addresses
- Galactic (including dark) matter distribution in a cubic section of the Universe
- Information embedded in an abstract mathematical object with symmetry symmetry-breaking nucleus
- Visual representation of a strange attractor, with converted data of its fractal structure
Information security (shortened as InfoSec) is the ongoing process of exercising due diligence to protect information, and information systems, from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, destruction, modification, disruption or distribution, through algorithms and procedures focused on monitoring and detection, as well as incident response and repair.
Information analysis is the process of inspecting, transforming, and modeling information, by converting raw data into actionable knowledge, in support of the decision-making process.
Information quality (shortened as InfoQ) is the potential of a dataset to achieve a specific (scientific or practical) goal using a given empirical analysis method.
Information communication represents the convergence of informatics, telecommunication and audio-visual media & content.
See also
- Accuracy and precision
- Complex adaptive system
- Complex system
- Data storage device#Recording media
- Engram
- Free Information Infrastructure
- Freedom of information
- Informatics
- Information and communication technologies
- Information architecture
- Information broker
- Information continuum
- Information ecology
- Information engineering
- Information geometry
- Information inequity
- Information infrastructure
- Information management
- Information metabolism
- Information overload
- Information quality (InfoQ)
- Information science
- Information sensitivity
- Information technology
- Information theory
- Information warfare
- Infosphere
- Lexicographic information cost
- Library science
- Meme
- Philosophy of information
- Quantum information
- Receiver operating characteristic
- Satisficing
References
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- Luciano Floridi (2010). Information – A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-160954-1.
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- Oxford English Dictionary, Third Edition, 2009, full text
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- David R. Anderson (1 November 2003). "Some background on why people in the empirical sciences may want to better understand the information-theoretic methods" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
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- Simonsen, Bo Krantz. "Informationsordbogen – vis begreb". Informationsordbogen.dk. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
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- ISO 15489
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- Ernest Nagel (1999). "§V: Alternative descriptions of physical state". The Structure of Science: Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation (2nd ed.). Hackett. pp. 285–292. ISBN 978-0915144716.
A theory is deterministic if, and only if, given its state variables for some initial period, the theory logically determines a unique set of values for those variables for any other period.
- Laplace, Pierre Simon, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities, translated into English from the original French 6th ed. by Truscott, F.W. and Emory, F.L., Dover Publications (New York, 1951) p.4.
- The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 15: The Berlin Years: Writings & Correspondence, June 1925-May 1927 (English Translation Supplement), p. 403
- Hawking, Stephen (2006). The Hawking Paradox. Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on 2 August 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- Overbye, Dennis (12 August 2013). "A Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
Further reading
- Liu, Alan (2004). The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information. University of Chicago Press.
- Bekenstein, Jacob D. (August 2003). "Information in the holographic universe". Scientific American. 289 (2): 58–65. Bibcode:2003SciAm.289b..58B. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0803-58. PMID 12884539.
- Gleick, James (2011). The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. New York, NY: Pantheon.
- Lin, Shu-Kun (2008). "Gibbs Paradox and the Concepts of Information, Symmetry, Similarity and Their Relationship". Entropy. 10 (1): 1–5. arXiv:0803.2571. Bibcode:2008Entrp..10....1L. doi:10.3390/entropy-e10010001. S2CID 41159530.
- Floridi, Luciano (2005). "Is Information Meaningful Data?" (PDF). Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 70 (2): 351–370. doi:10.1111/j.1933-1592.2005.tb00531.x. hdl:2299/1825. S2CID 5593220.
- Floridi, Luciano (2005). "Semantic Conceptions of Information". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2005 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- Floridi, Luciano (2010). Information: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Logan, Robert K. What is Information? – Propagating Organization in the Biosphere, the Symbolosphere, the Technosphere and the Econosphere. Toronto: DEMO Publishing.
- Machlup, F. and U. Mansfield, The Study of information : interdisciplinary messages. 1983, New York: Wiley. xxii, 743 p. ISBN 978-0471887171
- Nielsen, Sandro (2008). "The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making and Use". Lexikos. 18: 170–189.
- Stewart, Thomas (2001). Wealth of Knowledge. New York, NY: Doubleday.
- Young, Paul (1987). The Nature of Information. Westport, Ct: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-92698-4.
- Kenett, Ron S.; Shmueli, Galit (2016). Information Quality: The Potential of Data and Analytics to Generate Knowledge. Chichester, United Kingdom: John Wiley and Sons. doi:10.1002/9781118890622. ISBN 978-1-118-87444-8.
External links
- Semantic Conceptions of Information Review by Luciano Floridi for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Principia Cybernetica entry on negentropy
- Fisher Information, a New Paradigm for Science: Introduction, Uncertainty principles, Wave equations, Ideas of Escher, Kant, Plato and Wheeler. This essay is continually revised in the light of ongoing research.
- How Much Information? 2003 Archived 7 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine an attempt to estimate how much new information is created each year (study was produced by faculty and students at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley)
- (in Danish) Informationsordbogen.dk The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms / Informationsordbogen
Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform At the most fundamental level it pertains to the interpretation perhaps formally of that which may be sensed or their abstractions Any natural process that is not completely random and any observable pattern in any medium can be said to convey some amount of information Whereas digital signals and other data use discrete signs to convey information other phenomena and artifacts such as analogue signals poems pictures music or other sounds and currents convey information in a more continuous form Information is not knowledge itself but the meaning that may be derived from a representation through interpretation The concept of information is relevant or connected to various concepts including constraint communication control data form education knowledge meaning understanding mental stimuli pattern perception proposition representation and entropy Information is often processed iteratively Data available at one step are processed into information to be interpreted and processed at the next step For example in written text each symbol or letter conveys information relevant to the word it is part of each word conveys information relevant to the phrase it is part of each phrase conveys information relevant to the sentence it is part of and so on until at the final step information is interpreted and becomes knowledge in a given domain In a digital signal bits may be interpreted into the symbols letters numbers or structures that convey the information available at the next level up The key characteristic of information is that it is subject to interpretation and processing The derivation of information from a signal or message may be thought of as the resolution of ambiguity or uncertainty that arises during the interpretation of patterns within the signal or message Information may be structured as data Redundant data can be compressed up to an optimal size which is the theoretical limit of compression The information available through a collection of data may be derived by analysis For example a restaurant collects data from every customer order That information may be analyzed to produce knowledge that is put to use when the business subsequently wants to identify the most popular or least popular dish citation needed Information can be transmitted in time via data storage and space via communication and telecommunication Information is expressed either as the content of a message or through direct or indirect observation That which is perceived can be construed as a message in its own right and in that sense all information is always conveyed as the content of a message Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation for example information may be encoded into a sequence of signs or transmitted via a signal It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence Uncertainty is proportional to the negative logarithm of the probability of occurrence Information theory takes advantage of this by concluding that more uncertain events require more information to resolve their uncertainty The bit is a typical unit of information It is that which reduces uncertainty by half Other units such as the nat may be used For example the information encoded in one fair coin flip is log2 2 1 1 bit and in two fair coin flips is log2 4 1 2 bits A 2011 Science article estimates that 97 of technologically stored information was already in digital bits in 2007 and that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage with digital storage capacity bypassing analogue for the first time EtymologyThe English word information comes from Middle French enformacion informacion information a criminal investigation and its etymon Latin informatiō n conception teaching creation In English information is an uncountable mass noun Information theoryInformation theory is the scientific study of the quantification storage and communication of information The field itself was fundamentally established by the work of Claude Shannon in the 1940s with earlier contributions by Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley in the 1920s The field is at the intersection of probability theory statistics computer science statistical mechanics information engineering and electrical engineering A key measure in information theory is entropy Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process For example identifying the outcome of a fair coin flip with two equally likely outcomes provides less information lower entropy than specifying the outcome from a roll of a die with six equally likely outcomes Some other important measures in information theory are mutual information channel capacity error exponents and relative entropy Important sub fields of information theory include source coding algorithmic complexity theory algorithmic information theory and information theoretic security There is another opinion regarding the universal definition of information It lies in the fact that the concept itself has changed along with the change of various historical epochs and to find such a definition it is necessary to find standard features and patterns of this transformation For example researchers in the field of information Petrichenko E A and Semenova V G based on a retrospective analysis of changes in the concept of information give the following universal definition Information is a form of transmission of human experience knowledge In their opinion the change in the essence of the concept of information occurs after various breakthrough technologies for the transfer of experience knowledge i e the appearance of writing the printing press the first encyclopedias the telegraph the development of cybernetics the creation of a microprocessor the Internet smartphones etc Each new form of experience transfer is a synthesis of the previous ones That is why we see such a variety of definitions of information because according to the law of dialectics negation negation all previous ideas about information are contained in a filmed form and in its modern representation Applications of fundamental topics of information theory include source coding data compression e g for ZIP files and channel coding error detection and correction e g for DSL Its impact has been crucial to the success of the Voyager missions to deep space the invention of the compact disc the feasibility of mobile phones and the development of the Internet The theory has also found applications in other areas including statistical inference cryptography neurobiology perception linguistics the evolution and function of molecular codes bioinformatics thermal physics quantum computing black holes information retrieval intelligence gathering plagiarism detection pattern recognition anomaly detection and even art creation As sensory inputOften information can be viewed as a type of input to an organism or system Inputs are of two kinds some inputs are important to the function of the organism for example food or system energy by themselves In his book Sensory Ecology biophysicist David B Dusenbery called these causal inputs Other inputs information are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict the occurrence of a causal input at a later time and perhaps another place Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input In practice information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or system For example light is mainly but not only e g plants can grow in the direction of the light source a causal input to plants but for animals it only provides information The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak for photosynthesis but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee s nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower where the bee often finds nectar or pollen which are causal inputs a nutritional function As representation and complexityThe cognitive scientist and applied mathematician Ronaldo Vigo argues that information is a concept that requires at least two related entities to make quantitative sense These are any dimensionally defined category of objects S and any of its subsets R R in essence is a representation of S or in other words conveys representational and hence conceptual information about S Vigo then defines the amount of information that R conveys about S as the rate of change in the complexity of S whenever the objects in R are removed from S Under Vigo information pattern invariance complexity representation and information five fundamental constructs of universal science are unified under a novel mathematical framework Among other things the framework aims to overcome the limitations of Shannon Weaver information when attempting to characterize and measure subjective information As an influence that leads to transformationInformation is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns In this sense there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive much less appreciate the pattern Consider for example DNA The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences the formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind One might argue though that for a human to consciously define a pattern for example a nucleotide naturally involves conscious information processing However the existence of unicellular and multicellular organisms with the complex biochemistry that leads among other events to the existence of enzymes and polynucleotides that interact maintaining the biological order and participating in the development of multicellular organisms precedes by millions of years the emergence of human consciousness and the creation of the scientific culture that produced the chemical nomenclature Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind and patterns circulating due to feedback in the system can be called information In other words it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation though not created or presented for that purpose For example Gregory Bateson defines information as a difference that makes a difference If however the premise of influence implies that information has been perceived by a conscious mind and also interpreted by it the specific context associated with this interpretation may cause the transformation of the information into knowledge Complex definitions of both information and knowledge make such semantic and logical analysis difficult but the condition of transformation is an important point in the study of information as it relates to knowledge especially in the business discipline of knowledge management In this practice tools and processes are used to assist a knowledge worker in performing research and making decisions including steps such as Review information to effectively derive value and meaning Reference metadata if available Establish relevant context often from many possible contexts Derive new knowledge from the information Make decisions or recommendations from the resulting knowledge Stewart 2001 argues that transformation of information into knowledge is critical lying at the core of value creation and competitive advantage for the modern enterprise In a biological framework Mizraji has described information as an entity emerging from the interaction of patterns with receptor systems eg in molecular or neural receptors capable of interacting with specific patterns information emerges from those interactions In addition he has incorporated the idea of information catalysts structures where emerging information promotes the transition from pattern recognition to goal directed action for example the specific transformation of a substrate into a product by an enzyme or auditory reception of words and the production of an oral response The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms argues that information only provides an answer to a posed question Whether the answer provides knowledge depends on the informed person So a generalized definition of the concept should be Information An answer to a specific question When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets Also pheromones are often said to be information in this sense Technologically mediated informationThese sections are using measurements of data rather than information as information cannot be directly measured As of 2007 It is estimated that the world s technological capacity to store information grew from 2 6 optimally compressed exabytes in 1986 which is the informational equivalent to less than one 730 MB CD ROM per person 539 MB per person to 295 optimally compressed exabytes in 2007 This is the informational equivalent of almost 61 CD ROM per person in 2007 The world s combined technological capacity to receive information through one way broadcast networks was the informational equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day in 2007 The world s combined effective capacity to exchange information through two way telecommunication networks was the informational equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day in 2007 As of 2007 an estimated 90 of all new information is digital mostly stored on hard drives As of 2020 The total amount of data created captured copied and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly reaching 64 2 zettabytes in 2020 Over the next five years up to 2025 global data creation is projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes As recordsRecords are specialized forms of information Essentially records are information produced consciously or as by products of business activities or transactions and retained because of their value Primarily their value is as evidence of the activities of the organization but they may also be retained for their informational value Sound records management ensures that the integrity of records is preserved for as long as they are required citation needed The international standard on records management ISO 15489 defines records as information created received and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business The International Committee on Archives ICA Committee on electronic records defined a record as recorded information produced or received in the initiation conduct or completion of an institutional or individual activity and that comprises content context and structure sufficient to provide evidence of the activity Records may be maintained to retain corporate memory of the organization or to meet legal fiscal or accountability requirements imposed on the organization Willis expressed the view that sound management of business records and information delivered six key requirements for good corporate governance transparency accountability due process compliance meeting statutory and common law requirements and security of personal and corporate information SemioticsMichael Buckland has classified information in terms of its uses information as process information as knowledge and information as thing Beynon Davies explains the multi faceted concept of information in terms of signs and signal sign systems Signs themselves can be considered in terms of four inter dependent levels layers or branches of semiotics pragmatics semantics syntax and empirics These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technical world on the other Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication Pragmatics links the issue of signs with the context within which signs are used The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of living agents underlying communicative behaviour In other words pragmatics link language to action Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act Semantics considers the content of communication Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs the association between signs and behaviour Semantics can be considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts particularly the way that signs relate to human behavior Syntax is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message Syntax as an area studies the form of communication in terms of the logic and grammar of sign systems Syntax is devoted to the study of the form rather than the content of signs and sign systems Nielsen 2008 discusses the relationship between semiotics and information in relation to dictionaries He introduces the concept of lexicographic information costs and refers to the effort a user of a dictionary must make to first find and then understand data so that they can generate information Communication normally exists within the context of some social situation The social situation sets the context for the intentions conveyed pragmatics and the form of communication In a communicative situation intentions are expressed through messages that comprise collections of inter related signs taken from a language mutually understood by the agents involved in the communication Mutual understanding implies that agents involved understand the chosen language in terms of its agreed syntax and semantics The sender codes the message in the language and sends the message as signals along some communication channel empirics The chosen communication channel has inherent properties that determine outcomes such as the speed at which communication can take place and over what distance Physics and determinacyThe existence of information about a closed system is a major concept in both classical physics and quantum mechanics encompassing the ability real or theoretical of an agent to predict the future state of a system based on knowledge gathered during its past and present Determinism is a philosophical theory holding that causal determination can predict all future events positing a fully predictable universe described by classical physicist Pierre Simon Laplace as the effect of its past and the cause of its future Quantum physics instead encodes information as a wave function which prevents observers from directly identifying all of its possible measurements Prior to the publication of Bell s theorem determinists reconciled with this behavior using hidden variable theories which argued that the information necessary to predict the future of a function must exist even if it is not accessible for humans A view surmised by Albert Einstein with the assertion that God does not play dice Modern astronomy cites the mechanical sense of information in the black hole information paradox positing that because the complete evaporation of a black hole into Hawking radiation leaves nothing except an expanding cloud of homogeneous particles this results in the irrecoverability of any information about the matter to have originally crossed the event horizon violating both classical and quantum assertions against the ability to destroy information The application of information studyThe information cycle addressed as a whole or in its distinct components is of great concern to information technology information systems as well as information science These fields deal with those processes and techniques pertaining to information capture through sensors and generation through computation formulation or composition processing including encoding encryption compression packaging transmission including all telecommunication methods presentation including visualization display methods storage such as magnetic or optical including holographic methods etc Information visualization shortened as InfoVis depends on the computation and digital representation of data and assists users in pattern recognition and anomaly detection Partial map of the Internet with nodes representing IP addresses Galactic including dark matter distribution in a cubic section of the Universe Information embedded in an abstract mathematical object with symmetry symmetry breaking nucleus Visual representation of a strange attractor with converted data of its fractal structure Information security shortened as InfoSec is the ongoing process of exercising due diligence to protect information and information systems from unauthorized access use disclosure destruction modification disruption or distribution through algorithms and procedures focused on monitoring and detection as well as incident response and repair Information analysis is the process of inspecting transforming and modeling information by converting raw data into actionable knowledge in support of the decision making process Information quality shortened as InfoQ is the potential of a dataset to achieve a specific scientific or practical goal using a given empirical analysis method Information communication represents the convergence of informatics telecommunication and audio visual media amp content See alsoAccuracy and precision Complex adaptive system Complex system Data storage device Recording media Engram Free Information Infrastructure Freedom of information Informatics Information and communication technologies Information architecture Information broker Information continuum Information ecology Information engineering Information geometry Information inequity Information infrastructure Information management Information metabolism Information overload Information quality InfoQ Information science Information sensitivity Information technology Information theory Information warfare Infosphere Lexicographic information cost Library science Meme Philosophy of information Quantum information Receiver operating characteristic SatisficingReferencesJohn B Anderson Rolf Johnnesson 1996 Understanding Information Transmission Ieee Press ISBN 978 0471711209 Hubert P Yockey 2005 Information Theory Evolution and the Origin of Life Cambridge University Press p 7 ISBN 978 0511546433 Luciano Floridi 2010 Information A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 160954 1 Webler Forrest 25 February 2022 Measurement in the Age of Information Information 13 3 111 doi 10 3390 info13030111 World info capacity animation YouTube 11 June 2011 Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 Retrieved 1 May 2017 DT amp SC 4 5 Information Theory Primer Online Course YouTube University of California 2015 Hilbert Martin Lopez Priscila 2011 The World s Technological Capacity to Store Communicate and Compute Information Science 332 6025 60 65 Bibcode 2011Sci 332 60H doi 10 1126 science 1200970 PMID 21310967 S2CID 206531385 Free access to the article at martinhilbert net WorldInfoCapacity html Oxford English Dictionary Third Edition 2009 full text Perez Montoro Gutierrez Mario Edelstein Dick 2007 The Phenomenon of Information A Conceptual Approach to Information Flow Lanham Md Scarecrow Press pp 21 22 ISBN 978 0 8108 5942 5 Wesolowski Krzysztof 2009 Introduction to Digital Communication Systems PDF 1 publ ed Chichester Wiley p 2 ISBN 978 0 470 98629 5 Semenova Veronika Petrichenko Evgeny 2022 Information The History of Notion Its Present and Future Izvestiya University The North Caucasus Region Series Social Sciences 1 213 16 26 doi 10 18522 2687 0770 2022 1 16 26 ISSN 2687 0770 S2CID 249796993 Burnham K P and Anderson D R 2002 Model Selection and Multimodel Inference A Practical Information Theoretic Approach Second Edition Springer Science New York ISBN 978 0 387 95364 9 F Rieke D Warland R Ruyter van Steveninck W Bialek 1997 Spikes Exploring the Neural Code The MIT press ISBN 978 0262681087 Delgado Bonal Alfonso Martin Torres Javier 3 November 2016 Human vision is determined based on information theory Scientific Reports 6 1 36038 Bibcode 2016NatSR 636038D doi 10 1038 srep36038 ISSN 2045 2322 PMC 5093619 PMID 27808236 cf Huelsenbeck J P Ronquist F Nielsen R Bollback J P 2001 Bayesian inference of phylogeny and its impact on evolutionary biology Science 294 5550 2310 2314 Bibcode 2001Sci 294 2310H doi 10 1126 science 1065889 PMID 11743192 S2CID 2138288 Allikmets Rando Wasserman Wyeth W Hutchinson Amy Smallwood Philip Nathans Jeremy Rogan Peter K 1998 Thomas D Schneider Michael Dean 1998 Organization of the ABCR gene analysis of promoter and splice junction sequences Gene 215 1 111 122 doi 10 1016 s0378 1119 98 00269 8 PMID 9666097 Jaynes E T 1957 Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics Phys Rev 106 4 620 Bibcode 1957PhRv 106 620J doi 10 1103 physrev 106 620 S2CID 17870175 Bennett Charles H Li Ming Ma Bin 2003 Chain Letters and Evolutionary Histories Scientific American 288 6 76 81 Bibcode 2003SciAm 288f 76B doi 10 1038 scientificamerican0603 76 PMID 12764940 Archived from the original on 7 October 2007 Retrieved 11 March 2008 David R Anderson 1 November 2003 Some background on why people in the empirical sciences may want to better understand the information theoretic methods PDF Archived from the original PDF on 23 July 2011 Retrieved 23 June 2010 Dusenbery David B 1992 Sensory Ecology New York W H Freeman ISBN 978 0 7167 2333 2 Vigo R 2011 Representational information a new general notion and measure of information PDF Information Sciences 181 21 4847 4859 doi 10 1016 j ins 2011 05 020 Vigo R 2013 Complexity over Uncertainty in Generalized Representational Information Theory GRIT A Structure Sensitive General Theory of Information Information 4 1 1 30 doi 10 3390 info4010001 Vigo R 2014 Mathematical Principles of Human Conceptual Behavior The Structural Nature of Conceptual Representation and Processing New York and London Scientific Psychology Series Routledge ISBN 978 0415714365 Shannon Claude E 1949 The Mathematical Theory of Communication Casagrande David 1999 Information as verb Re conceptualizing information for cognitive and ecological models PDF Journal of Ecological Anthropology 3 1 4 13 doi 10 5038 2162 4593 3 1 1 Bateson Gregory 1972 Form Substance and Difference in Steps to an Ecology of Mind University of Chicago Press pp 448 466 Mizraji E 2021 The biological Maxwell s demons exploring ideas about the information processing in biological systems Theory in Biosciences 140 3 307 318 doi 10 1007 s12064 021 00354 6 PMC 8568868 PMID 34449033 Simonsen Bo Krantz Informationsordbogen vis begreb Informationsordbogen dk Retrieved 1 May 2017 Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population Eduardo Pinheiro Wolf Dietrich Weber and Luiz Andre Barroso Total data volume worldwide 2010 2025 Statista Retrieved 6 August 2021 ISO 15489 Committee on Electronic Records February 1997 Guide For Managing Electronic Records From An Archival Perspective PDF www ica org International Committee on Archives p 22 Retrieved 9 February 2019 Willis Anthony 1 August 2005 Corporate governance and management of information and records Records Management Journal 15 2 86 97 doi 10 1108 09565690510614238 Buckland Michael K June 1991 Information as thing Journal of the American Society for Information Science 42 5 351 360 doi 10 1002 SICI 1097 4571 199106 42 5 lt 351 AID ASI5 gt 3 0 CO 2 3 Beynon Davies P 2002 Information Systems an introduction to informatics in Organisations Basingstoke UK Palgrave ISBN 978 0 333 96390 6 Beynon Davies P 2009 Business Information Systems Basingstoke Palgrave ISBN 978 0 230 20368 6 Ernest Nagel 1999 V Alternative descriptions of physical state The Structure of Science Problems in the Logic of Scientific Explanation 2nd ed Hackett pp 285 292 ISBN 978 0915144716 A theory is deterministic if and only if given its state variables for some initial period the theory logically determines a unique set of values for those variables for any other period Laplace Pierre Simon A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities translated into English from the original French 6th ed by Truscott F W and Emory F L Dover Publications New York 1951 p 4 The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein Volume 15 The Berlin Years Writings amp Correspondence June 1925 May 1927 English Translation Supplement p 403 Hawking Stephen 2006 The Hawking Paradox Discovery Channel Archived from the original on 2 August 2013 Retrieved 13 August 2013 Overbye Dennis 12 August 2013 A Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox The New York Times Retrieved 12 August 2013 Further readingLiu Alan 2004 The Laws of Cool Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information University of Chicago Press Bekenstein Jacob D August 2003 Information in the holographic universe Scientific American 289 2 58 65 Bibcode 2003SciAm 289b 58B doi 10 1038 scientificamerican0803 58 PMID 12884539 Gleick James 2011 The Information A History a Theory a Flood New York NY Pantheon Lin Shu Kun 2008 Gibbs Paradox and the Concepts of Information Symmetry Similarity and Their Relationship Entropy 10 1 1 5 arXiv 0803 2571 Bibcode 2008Entrp 10 1L doi 10 3390 entropy e10010001 S2CID 41159530 Floridi Luciano 2005 Is Information Meaningful Data PDF Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 70 2 351 370 doi 10 1111 j 1933 1592 2005 tb00531 x hdl 2299 1825 S2CID 5593220 Floridi Luciano 2005 Semantic Conceptions of Information In Zalta Edward N ed The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Winter 2005 ed Metaphysics Research Lab Stanford University Floridi Luciano 2010 Information A Very Short Introduction Oxford Oxford University Press Logan Robert K What is Information Propagating Organization in the Biosphere the Symbolosphere the Technosphere and the Econosphere Toronto DEMO Publishing Machlup F and U Mansfield The Study of information interdisciplinary messages 1983 New York Wiley xxii 743 p ISBN 978 0471887171 Nielsen Sandro 2008 The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making and Use Lexikos 18 170 189 Stewart Thomas 2001 Wealth of Knowledge New York NY Doubleday Young Paul 1987 The Nature of Information Westport Ct Greenwood Publishing Group ISBN 978 0 275 92698 4 Kenett Ron S Shmueli Galit 2016 Information Quality The Potential of Data and Analytics to Generate Knowledge Chichester United Kingdom John Wiley and Sons doi 10 1002 9781118890622 ISBN 978 1 118 87444 8 External linksLook up information in Wiktionary the free dictionary Wikiquote has quotations related to Information Wikimedia Commons has media related to Information Semantic Conceptions of Information Review by Luciano Floridi for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Principia Cybernetica entry on negentropy Fisher Information a New Paradigm for Science Introduction Uncertainty principles Wave equations Ideas of Escher Kant Plato and Wheeler This essay is continually revised in the light of ongoing research How Much Information 2003 Archived 7 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine an attempt to estimate how much new information is created each year study was produced by faculty and students at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley in Danish Informationsordbogen dk The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms Informationsordbogen