Information is a general name for information, data, messages, whatever you call them. At present, science has not come to a single definition of the term “information”. However, people already understand what it is. In each scientific system, information is presented a little differently, but the essence is the same: data in any form, a description of the object, information about the system, and so on. Information can be classified and divided into different categories (for example, by the method of perception or by the form of presentation, by purpose or by meaning). Information exists in any material object in the form of a variety of its states and is transferred from object to object in the process of their interaction. Information permeates our world, envelops it and exists everywhere. Even the absence of any data is already information.
Humanity has repeatedly sent data about its civilization into space. It is worth remembering at least the famous gold-plated disk attached to the body of Voyager, containing a series of audio and video messages or records from the Pioneer spacecraft. And very soon another similar project will be launched: a group of researchers from the AMF Foundation together with companies
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Information is information about something
Concept and types of information, transmission and processing, search and storage of information
Information is, definition
Information is any intelligence, received and transmitted, stored by various sources. - this is the entire collection of information about the world around us, about all kinds of processes occurring in it that can be perceived by living organisms, electronic machines and other information systems.
- This significant information about something, when the form of its presentation is also information, that is, it has a formatting function in accordance with its own nature.
Information is everything that can be supplemented with our knowledge and assumptions.
Information is information about something, regardless of the form of its presentation.
Information is mental of any psychophysical organism, produced by it when using any means called a medium of information.
Information is information perceived by humans and (or) specialists. devices as a reflection of the facts of the material or spiritual world in process communications.
Information is data organized in such a way that it makes sense to the person handling it.
Information is the meaning a person attaches to data based on the known conventions used to represent it.
Information is information, explanation, presentation.
Information is any data or information that interests anyone.
Information is information about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and state, which are perceived by information systems (living organisms, control machines, etc.) in process life and work.
The same information message (newspaper article, advertisement, letter, telegram, certificate, story, drawing, radio broadcast, etc.) may contain different amounts of information for different people - depending on their previous knowledge, on the level of understanding of this message and interest in it.
In cases where they talk about automated work with information through any technical devices, are not interested in the content of the message, but in how many characters this message contains.
Information is
Applied to computer processing data, information is understood as a certain sequence of symbolic designations (letters, numbers, encoded graphic images and sounds, etc.), carrying a semantic load and presented in a form understandable to a computer. Each new character in such a sequence of characters increases the information volume of the message.
Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge this concept described by its specific set of characteristics. For example, the concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, and it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts (just as in geometry, for example, it is impossible to express the content of the basic concepts “point”, “line”, “plane” through simpler concepts).
The content of basic, basic concepts in any science should be explained with examples or identified by comparing them with the content of other concepts. In the case of the concept “information”, the problem of its definition is even more complex, since it is a general scientific concept. This concept is used in various sciences (computer science, cybernetics, biology, physics, etc.), and in each science the concept of “information” is associated with different systems of concepts.
Information concept
In modern science, two types of information are considered:
Objective (primary) information is the property of material objects and phenomena (processes) to generate a variety of states, which through interactions (fundamental interactions) are transmitted to other objects and imprinted in their structure.
Subjective (semantic, semantic, secondary) information is the semantic content of objective information about objects and processes of the material world, formed by the human consciousness with the help of semantic images (words, images and sensations) and recorded on some material medium.
In the everyday sense, information is information about the surrounding world and the processes occurring in it, perceived by a person or a special device.
Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge, this concept is described by its specific set of characteristics. According to the concept of K. Shannon, information is the removal of uncertainty, i.e. Information that should remove, to one degree or another, the uncertainty existing in the acquirer before receiving it, and expand his understanding of the object with useful information.
From Gregory Beton's point of view, the elementary unit of information is a "non-indifferent difference" or effective difference for some larger perceiving system. He calls those differences that are not perceived “potential”, and those that are perceived “effective”. “Information consists of differences that are not indifferent” (c) “Any perception of information is necessarily the receipt of information about the difference.” From the point of view of computer science, information has a number of fundamental properties: novelty, relevance, reliability, objectivity, completeness, value, etc. The science of logic deals primarily with the analysis of information. The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of information was considered by ancient philosophers.
Information is
Before the start of the Industrial Revolution, determining the essence of information remained the prerogative of mainly philosophers. Next, the new science of cybernetics began to consider issues of information theory.
Sometimes, in order to comprehend the essence of a concept, it is useful to analyze the meaning of the word by which this concept is denoted. Clarifying the inner form of a word and studying the history of its use can shed unexpected light on its meaning, obscured by the usual "technological" use of the word and modern connotations.
The word information entered the Russian language in the Petrine era. It was first recorded in the “Spiritual Regulations” of 1721 in the meaning of “idea, concept of something.” (In European languages it was established earlier - around the 14th century.)
Information is
Based on this etymology, information can be considered any significant change in shape or, in other words, any materially recorded traces formed by the interaction of objects or forces and amenable to understanding. Information, therefore, is a converted form of energy. The carrier of information is a sign, and the method of its existence is interpretation: identifying the meaning of a sign or a sequence of signs.
The meaning can be an event reconstructed from a sign that caused its occurrence (in the case of “natural” and involuntary signs, such as traces, evidence, etc.), or a message (in the case of conventional signs inherent in the sphere of language). It is the second type of signs that makes up the body of human culture, which, according to one definition, is “a set of non-hereditarily transmitted information.”
Information is
Messages may contain information about facts or interpretation of facts (from the Latin interpretatio, interpretation, translation).
A living being receives information through the senses, as well as through reflection or intuition. The exchange of information between subjects is communication or communication (from the Latin communicatio, message, transfer, derived in turn from the Latin communico, to make common, to communicate, to talk, to connect).
From a practical point of view, information is always presented in the form of a message. The information message is associated with the source of the message, the recipient of the message and the communication channel.
Returning to the Latin etymology of the word information, let's try to answer the question of what exactly is given form here.
It is obvious that, firstly, to a certain meaning, which, being initially formless and unexpressed, exists only potentially and must be “built” in order to become perceived and transmitted.
Secondly, to the human mind, which is trained to think structurally and clearly. Thirdly, to a society that, precisely because its members share these meanings and use them together, gains unity and functionality.
Information is
information as expressed intelligent meaning is knowledge that can be stored, transmitted and be the basis for the generation of other knowledge. The forms of knowledge conservation (historical memory) are diverse: from myths, chronicles and pyramids to libraries, museums and computer databases.
Information - information about the world around us, about the processes occurring in it that living organisms perceive, managers machines and other information systems.
The word "information" is Latin. Over its long life, its meaning has undergone evolution, either expanding or extremely narrowing its boundaries. At first, the word “information” meant: “representation”, “concept”, then “information”, “transmission of messages”.
In recent years, scientists have decided that the usual (universally accepted) meaning of the word “information” is too elastic and vague, and have given it the following meaning: “a measure of certainty in a message.”
Information is
Information theory was brought to life by the needs of practice. Its occurrence is associated with work Claude Shannon's "Mathematical Theory of Communication", published in 1946. The fundamentals of information theory are based on results obtained by many scientists. By the second half of the 20th century, the globe was buzzing with transmitted information running along telephone and telegraph cables and radio channels. Later, electronic computers appeared - information processors. And for that time, the main task of information theory was, first of all, to increase the efficiency of communication systems. The difficulty in designing and operating means, systems and communication channels is that it is not enough for the designer and engineer to solve the problem from a physical and energy perspective. From these points of view, the system can be the most advanced and economical. But when creating transmission systems, it is important to pay attention to how much information will pass through this transmission system. After all, information can be measured quantitatively, counted. And in such calculations they act in the most usual way: they abstract from the meaning of the message, just as they abandon concreteness in arithmetic operations that are familiar to all of us (as they move from adding two apples and three apples to adding numbers in general: 2 + 3).
The scientists said they "completely ignored human evaluation of information." To a sequential series of 100 letters, for example, they assign a certain meaning of information, without paying attention to whether this information makes sense and whether, in turn, it makes sense in practical application. The quantitative approach is the most developed branch of information theory. By this definition, a collection of 100 letters—a 100-letter phrase from a newspaper, a Shakespeare play, or Einstein's theorem—has exactly the same amount of information.
This definition of information quantity is extremely useful and practical. It exactly corresponds to the task of the communications engineer, who must convey all the information contained in the submitted telegram, regardless of the value of this information for the addressee. The communication channel is soulless. One thing is important for the transmission system: to transmit the required amount of information in a certain time. How to calculate the amount of information in a particular message?
Information is
Estimation of the amount of information is based on the laws of probability theory, more precisely, it is determined through probabilities events. This is understandable. A message has value and carries information only when we learn from it about the outcome of an event that is random in nature, when it is to some extent unexpected. After all, the message about what is already known does not contain any information. Those. If, for example, someone calls you on the telephone and says: “It is light during the day and dark at night,” then such a message will surprise you only with the absurdity of stating something obvious and known to everyone, and not with the news that it contains. Another thing, for example, is the result of a race. Who will come first? The outcome here is difficult to predict. The more random outcomes an event of interest to us has, the more valuable the message about its result, the more information. A message about an event that has only two equally possible outcomes contains a single unit of information called a bit. The choice of information unit is not accidental. It is associated with the most common binary way of encoding it during transmission and processing. Let us try, at least in the most simplified form, to imagine the general principle of quantitative assessment of information, which is the cornerstone of all information theory.
We already know that the amount of information depends on probabilities certain outcomes of the event. If an event, as scientists say, has two equally probable outcomes, this means that each outcome is equal to 1/2. This is the probability of getting heads or tails when tossing a coin. If an event has three equally probable outcomes, then the probability of each is 1/3. Note that the sum of the probabilities of all outcomes is always equal to one: after all, one of all possible outcomes will definitely occur. An event, as you yourself understand, can have unequally probable outcomes. So, in a football match between a strong and weak team, the probability of the strong team winning is high - for example, 4/5. there are much fewer draws, for example 3/20. The probability of defeat is very small.
It turns out that the amount of information is a measure of reducing the uncertainty of a certain situation. Various amounts of information are transmitted over communication channels, and the amount of information passing through the channel cannot be greater than it bandwidth. And it is determined by how much information passes here per unit of time. One of the heroes of Jules Verne’s novel “The Mysterious Island,” journalist Gideon Spillett, reported on telephone set chapter from the Bible so that his competitors could not take advantage telephone communication. In this case, the channel was fully loaded, and the amount of information was equal to zero, because information known to him was transmitted to the subscriber. This means that the channel was running idle, passing a strictly defined number of pulses without loading them with anything. Meanwhile, the more information each of a certain number of pulses carries, the more fully the channel capacity is used. Therefore, you need to wisely encode information, find an economical, spare language to convey messages.
Information is “sifted” in the most thorough manner. In the telegraph, frequently occurring letters, combinations of letters, even entire phrases are represented by a shorter set of zeros and ones, and those that occur less frequently are represented by a longer set. In the case when the length of the code word is reduced for frequently occurring symbols and increased for rarely occurring ones, they speak of effective encoding of information. But in practice, it often happens that the code that has arisen as a result of the most careful “sifting”, the code is convenient and economical, can distort the message due to interference, which, unfortunately, always happens in communication channels: sound distortion in the telephone, atmospheric interference in, distortion or darkening of the image in television, errors in transmission in telegraph. This interference, or as experts call it, noise, attacks the information. And this results in the most incredible and, naturally, unpleasant surprises.
Therefore, to increase reliability in the transmission and processing of information, it is necessary to introduce extra characters - a kind of protection against distortion. They - these extra symbols - do not carry the actual content of the message, they are redundant. From the point of view of information theory, everything that makes a language colorful, flexible, rich in shades, multifaceted, multi-valued is redundancy. How redundant from such a standpoint is Tatyana’s letter to Onegin! How much information excess there is in it for a brief and understandable message “I love you”! And how informationally accurate the hand-drawn signs are, understandable to everyone who enters the subway today, where instead of words and phrases of announcements there are laconic symbolic signs indicating: “Entrance”, “Exit”.
In this regard, it is useful to recall the anecdote once told by the famous American scientist Benjamin Franklin about a hat maker who invited his friends to discuss a sign project. It was supposed to draw a hat on the sign and write: “John Thompson, a hat maker, makes and sells hats for cash.” One of my friends noticed that the words "for cash" money" are unnecessary - such a reminder would be offensive to buyer. Another also found the word “sells” superfluous, since it goes without saying that the hatmaker sells hats and does not give them away for free. The third thought that the words “hattermaker” and “makes hats” were an unnecessary tautology, and the latter words were thrown out. The fourth suggested that the word “hatmaker” should also be thrown out - the painted hat clearly says who John Thompson is. Finally, the fifth assured that for buyer it made absolutely no difference whether the hatmaker was called John Thompson or otherwise, and proposed to dispense with this indication. Thus, in the end, nothing remained on the sign except the hat. Of course, if people used only this kind of codes, without redundancy in messages, then all “information forms” - books, reports, articles - would be extremely brief. But they would lose in clarity and beauty.
Information can be divided into types according to different criteria: in truth: true and false;
by way of perception:
Visual - perceived by the organs of vision;
Auditory - perceived by the organs of hearing;
Tactile - perceived by tactile receptors;
Olfactory - perceived by olfactory receptors;
Gustatory - perceived by taste buds.
according to presentation form:
Text - transmitted in the form of symbols intended to denote lexemes of the language;
Numerical - in the form of numbers and signs indicating mathematical operations;
Graphic - in the form of images, objects, graphs;
Sound - oral or recorded transmission of language lexemes by auditory means.
by purpose:
Mass - contains trivial information and operates with a set of concepts understandable to most of society;
Special - contains a specific set of concepts; when used, information is transmitted that may not be understandable to the bulk of society, but is necessary and understandable within a narrow framework social group where used this information;
Secret - transmitted to a narrow circle of people and through closed (protected) channels;
Personal (private) - a set of information about a person, defining social status and types social interactions within a population.
by value:
Up-to-date - valuable information this moment time;
Reliable - information obtained without distortion;
Understandable - information expressed in a language understandable to those to whom it is intended;
Complete - information sufficient for acceptance the right decision or understanding;
Useful - the usefulness of information is determined by the subject who received the information depending on the scope of possibilities for its use.
The value of information in various fields of knowledge
In information theory, many systems, methods, approaches, and ideas are being developed nowadays. However, scientists believe that new directions in information theory will be added to modern ones and new ideas will appear. As proof of the correctness of their assumptions, they cite the “living”, developing nature of science, pointing out that information theory is surprisingly quickly and firmly being introduced into the most diverse areas of human knowledge. Information theory has penetrated into physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, pedagogy, economics, logic, technical sciences, and aesthetics. According to the experts themselves, the doctrine of information, which arose due to the needs of the theory of communications and cybernetics, has crossed their boundaries. And now, perhaps, we have the right to talk about information as a scientific concept that puts into the hands of researchers a theoretical - information method with the help of which you can penetrate into many sciences about living and inanimate nature, about society, which will not only allow you to look at all problems from a new perspective sides, but also to see what has not yet been seen. That is why the term “information” has become widespread in our time, becoming part of such concepts as information system, information culture, even information ethics.
Many scientific disciplines use information theory to highlight new directions in old sciences. This is how, for example, information geography, information economics, and information law arose. But the term “information” has acquired extremely great importance in connection with the development of the latest computer technology, the automation of mental work, the development of new means of communication and information processing, and especially with the emergence of computer science. One of the most important tasks of information theory is the study of the nature and properties of information, the creation of methods for its processing, in particular the transformation of various modern information into computer programs, with the help of which automation of mental work occurs - a kind of strengthening of intelligence, and therefore the development of the intellectual resources of society.
The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, but it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts. The concept of “information” is used in various sciences, and in each science the concept of “information” is associated with different systems of concepts. Information in biology: Biology studies living nature and the concept of “information” is associated with the appropriate behavior of living organisms. In living organisms, information is transmitted and stored using objects of different physical nature (DNA state), which are considered as signs of biological alphabets. Genetic information is inherited and stored in all cells of living organisms. Philosophical approach: information is interaction, reflection, cognition. Cybernetic approach: information is characteristics manager signal transmitted over a communication line.
The role of information in philosophy
The traditionalism of the subjective constantly dominated in the early definitions of information as a category, concept, property of the material world. Information exists outside of our consciousness, and can be reflected in our perception only as a result of interaction: reflection, reading, receiving in the form of a signal, stimulus. Information is not material, like all properties of matter. Information stands in the following order: matter, space, time, systematicity, function, etc., which are the fundamental concepts of a formalized reflection of objective reality in its distribution and variability, diversity and manifestations. Information is a property of matter and reflects its properties (state or ability to interact) and quantity (measure) through interaction.
From a material point of view, information is the order of objects in the material world. For example, the order of letters on a sheet of paper according to certain rules is written information. The order in which multi-colored dots appear on a sheet of paper according to certain rules is graphic information. The order of musical notes is musical information. The order of genes in DNA is hereditary information. The order of bits in a computer is computer information, etc. and so on. To carry out information exchange, the presence of necessary and sufficient conditions is required.
Information is
The necessary conditions:
The presence of at least two different objects of the material or intangible world;
The presence of a common property among objects that allows them to be identified as a carrier of information;
The presence of a specific property in objects that allows them to distinguish objects from each other;
The presence of a space property that allows you to determine the order of objects. For example, the layout of written information on paper is a specific property of paper that allows letters to be arranged from left to right and from top to bottom.
There is only one sufficient condition: the presence of a subject capable of recognizing information. This is man and human society, societies of animals, robots, etc. An information message is constructed by selecting copies of objects from a basis and arranging these objects in space in a certain order. The length of the information message is defined as the number of copies of the basis objects and is always expressed as an integer. It is necessary to distinguish between the length of an information message, which is always measured in an integer, and the amount of knowledge contained in an information message, which is measured in an unknown unit of measurement. From a mathematical point of view, information is a sequence of integers that are written into a vector. Numbers are the object number in the information basis. The vector is called an information invariant, since it does not depend on the physical nature of the basis objects. The same information message can be expressed in letters, words, sentences, files, pictures, notes, songs, video clips, any combination of all of the above.
Information is
The role of information in physics
information is information about the surrounding world (object, process, phenomenon, event), which is the object of transformation (including storage, transmission, etc.) and is used to develop behavior, for decision-making, for management or for learning.
The characteristic features of the information are as follows:
This is the most important resource of modern production: it reduces the need for land, labor, capital, and reduces the consumption of raw materials and energy. So, for example, if you have the ability to archive your files (i.e., having such information), you don’t have to spend money on buying new floppy disks;
Information brings new productions to life. For example, the invention of the laser beam was the reason for the emergence and development of the production of laser (optical) discs;
Information is a commodity, and information is not lost after sale. So, if a student tells his friend information about the class schedule during the semester, he will not lose this data for himself;
Information adds value to other resources, in particular labor. Indeed, a worker with a higher education is valued more than one with a secondary education.
As follows from the definition, three concepts are always associated with information:
The source of information is that element of the surrounding world (object, phenomenon, event), information about which is the object of transformation. Thus, the source of information that the reader of this present moment receives teaching aid, is computer science as a field of human activity;
The acquirer of information is that element of the surrounding world that uses information (to develop behavior, to make decisions, to manage or to learn). The purchaser of this information is the reader himself;
A signal is a material medium that records information to transfer it from the source to the recipient. In this case, the signal is electronic in nature. If a student takes this manual from the library, then the same information will be on paper. Having been read and remembered by the student, the information will acquire another carrier - biological, when it is “recorded” in the student’s memory.
The signal is the most important element in this circuit. The forms of its presentation, as well as the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information it contains, which are important for the acquirer of information, are discussed further in this section of the textbook. The main characteristics of a computer as the main tool that maps the source of information into a signal (link 1 in the figure) and “brings” the signal to the recipient of information (link 2 in the figure) are given in the Computer section. The structure of procedures that implement connections 1 and 2 and make up the information process is the subject of consideration in the Information Process part.
Objects of the material world are in a state of continuous change, which is characterized by the exchange of energy between the object and the environment. A change in the state of one object always leads to a change in the state of some other environmental object. This phenomenon, regardless of how, what states and what objects have changed, can be considered as the transmission of a signal from one object to another. Changing the state of an object when a signal is transmitted to it is called signal registration.
A signal or a sequence of signals forms a message that can be perceived by the recipient in one form or another, as well as in one or another volume. Information in physics is a term that qualitatively generalizes the concepts of “signal” and “message”. If signals and messages can be quantified, then we can say that signals and messages are units of measurement of the volume of information. The message (signal) is interpreted differently by different systems. For example, successively long and two short sound signals in Morse code terminology it is the letter de (or D), in BIOS terminology from the award company it is a video card malfunction.
Information is
The role of information in mathematics
In mathematics, information theory (mathematical communication theory) is a section of applied mathematics that defines the concept of information, its properties and establishes limiting relationships for data transmission systems. The main branches of information theory are source coding (compression coding) and channel (noise-resistant) coding. Mathematics is more than a scientific discipline. It creates a unified language for all Science.
The subject of mathematics research is abstract objects: number, function, vector, set, and others. Moreover, most of them are introduced axiomatically (axiom), i.e. without any connection with other concepts and without any definition.
Information is
information is not included in the scope of mathematics research. However, the word "information" is used in mathematical terms - self-information and mutual information, related to the abstract (mathematical) part of information theory. However, in mathematical theory, the concept of “information” is associated with exclusively abstract objects - random variables, while in modern information theory this concept is considered much more broadly - as a property of material objects. The connection between these two identical terms is undeniable. It was the mathematical apparatus of random numbers that was used by the author of information theory, Claude Shannon. He himself means by the term “information” something fundamental (irreducible). Shannon's theory intuitively assumes that information has content. Information reduces overall uncertainty and information entropy. The amount of information is measurable. However, he warns researchers against mechanically transferring concepts from his theory to other areas of science.
“The search for ways to apply information theory in other fields of science does not come down to a trivial transfer of terms from one field of science to another. This search is carried out in a long process of putting forward new hypotheses and their experimental testing.” K. Shannon.
Information is
The role of information in cybernetics
The founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, spoke about information like this:
information is not matter or energy, information is information." But the basic definition of information, which he gave in several of his books, is the following: information is a designation of content received by us from the external world, in the process of adapting us and our feelings.
Information is the basic concept of cybernetics, just as economic information is the basic concept of economic cybernetics.
There are many definitions of this term, they are complex and contradictory. The reason, obviously, is that cybernetics as a phenomenon is studied by different sciences, and cybernetics is only the youngest of them. Information is the subject of study of such sciences as management science, mathematics, genetics, and the theory of mass media (print, radio, television), computer science, dealing with problems of scientific and technical information, etc. Finally, Lately Philosophers show great interest in the problems of energy: they tend to consider energy as one of the main universal properties of matter, associated with the concept of reflection. With all interpretations of the concept of information, it presupposes the existence of two objects: the source of information and the acquirer (recipient) of information. The transfer of information from one to another occurs with the help of signals, which, generally speaking, may not have any physical connection with its meaning: this communication is determined by agreement. For example, ringing the veche bell meant that one had to gather for the square, but to those who did not know about this order, he did not communicate any information.
In a situation with a veche bell, the person participating in the agreement on the meaning of the signal knows that at the moment there can be two alternatives: the veche meeting will take place or not. Or, in the language of the theory of information, an uncertain event (veche) has two outcomes. The received signal leads to a decrease in uncertainty: the person now knows that the event (evening) has only one outcome - it will take place. However, if it was known in advance that the meeting would take place at such and such an hour, the bell did not announce anything new. It follows that the less probable (i.e., more unexpected) the message, the more information it contains, and vice versa, the greater the probability of the outcome before the event occurs, the less information it contains. Approximately the same reasoning was made in the 40s. XX century to the emergence of a statistical, or “classical” theory of information, which defines the concept of information through the measure of reducing the uncertainty of knowledge about the occurrence of an event (this measure was called entropy). The origins of this science were N. Wiener, K. Shannon and Soviet scientists A. N. Kolmogorov, V. A. Kotelnikov and others. They were able to derive mathematical laws for measuring the amount of information, and hence such concepts as channel capacity and ., storage capacity of I. devices, etc., which served as a powerful incentive for the development of cybernetics as a science and electronic computer technology How practical application achievements of cybernetics.
As for determining the value and usefulness of information for the recipient, there is still a lot that is unresolved and unclear. If we proceed from the needs of economic management and, therefore, economic cybernetics, then information can be defined as all that information, knowledge, and messages that help solve a particular management problem (that is, reduce the uncertainty of its outcomes). Then some opportunities open up for evaluating information: it is more useful, more valuable, the sooner or with less costs leads to a solution to the problem. The concept of information is close to the concept of data. However, there is a difference between them: data are signals from which information still needs to be extracted. Data processing is the process of bringing them into a form suitable for this.
The process of their transfer from source to recipient and perception as information can be considered as passing through three filters:
Physical, or statistical (purely quantitative limitation on channel capacity, regardless of the data content, i.e. from the point of view of syntactics);
Semantic (selection of those data that can be understood by the recipient, i.e. correspond to the thesaurus of his knowledge);
Pragmatic (selection among understood information of those that are useful for solving a given problem).
This is clearly shown in the diagram taken from E. G. Yasin’s book on economic information. Accordingly, three aspects of the study of linguistic problems are distinguished—syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic.
According to the content, information is divided into socio-political, socio-economic (including economic information), scientific and technical, etc. In general, there are many classifications of information; they are based on various bases. As a rule, due to the proximity of concepts, data classifications are constructed in the same way. For example, information is divided into static (constant) and dynamic (variable), and data is divided into constant and variable. Another division is primary, derivative, output information (data are also classified in the same way). The third division is I. controlling and informing. Fourth - redundant, useful and false. Fifth - complete (continuous) and selective. This idea by Wiener gives a direct indication of the objectivity of the information, i.e. its existence in nature is independent of human consciousness (perception).
Information is
Modern cybernetics defines objective information as the objective property of material objects and phenomena to generate a variety of states that, through the fundamental interactions of matter, are transmitted from one object (process) to another and are imprinted in its structure. A material system in cybernetics is considered as a set of objects that themselves can be in different states, but the state of each of them is determined by the states of other objects of the system.
Information is
In nature, many states of a system represent information; the states themselves represent the primary code, or source code. Thus, every material system is a source of information. Cybernetics defines subjective (semantic) information as the meaning or content of a message.
The role of information in computer science
The subject of science is data: methods of its creation, storage, processing and transmission. Content (also: “content” (in context), “site content”) is a term meaning all types of information (both text and multimedia - images, audio, video) that make up the content (visualized, for the visitor, content) of the web -site. It is used to separate the concept of information that makes up the internal structure of a page/site (code) from what will ultimately be displayed on the screen.
The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, but it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts.
The following approaches to determining information can be distinguished:
Traditional (ordinary) - used in computer science: information is information, knowledge, messages about the state of affairs that a person perceives from the outside world using the senses (vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch).
Probabilistic - used in the theory of information: information is information about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and state, which reduce the degree of uncertainty and incompleteness of knowledge about them.
Information is stored, transmitted and processed in symbolic (sign) form. The same information can be presented in different forms:
Sign writing, consisting of various signs, among which symbolic ones are distinguished in the form of text, numbers, specials. characters; graphic; tabular, etc.;
In the form of gestures or signals;
Oral verbal form (conversation).
Information is presented using languages as sign systems, which are built on the basis of a specific alphabet and have rules for performing operations on signs. Language is a specific sign system for presenting information. Exist:
Natural languages are spoken languages in spoken and written form. In some cases, spoken language can be replaced by the language of facial expressions and gestures, the language of special signs (for example, road signs);
Formal languages are special languages for various areas of human activity, which are characterized by a strictly fixed alphabet and more strict rules of grammar and syntax. This is the language of music (notes), the language of mathematics (numbers, mathematical symbols), number systems, programming languages, etc. The basis of any language is the alphabet - a set of symbols/signs. The total number of symbols of the alphabet is usually called the power of the alphabet.
Information media is a medium or physical body for transmitting, storing and reproducing information. (These are electrical, light, thermal, sound, radio signals, magnetic and laser discs, printed publications, photographs, etc.)
Information processes are processes associated with receiving, storing, processing and transmitting information (i.e. actions performed with information). Those. These are processes during which the content of information or the form of its presentation changes.
To ensure the information process, a source of information, a communication channel and a buyer of information are required. The source transmits (sends) information, and the receiver receives (perceives) it. The transmitted information travels from the source to the receiver using a signal (code). Changing the signal allows you to obtain information.
Being an object of transformation and use, information is characterized by the following properties:
Syntax is a property that determines the way information is presented on a medium (in a signal). Thus, this information is presented on electronic media using a specific font. Here you can also consider such information presentation parameters as font style and color, its size, line spacing etc. Selection required parameters as syntactic properties is obviously determined by the intended method of transformation. For example, for a person with poor vision, the size and color of the font is important. If you plan to enter this text into a computer via a scanner, the paper size is important;
Semantics is a property that determines the meaning of information as the correspondence of the signal to the real world. Thus, the semantics of the “computer science” signal lies in the definition given earlier. Semantics can be considered as some agreement, known to the acquirer of information, about what each signal means (the so-called interpretation rule). For example, it is the semantics of signals that a novice motorist studies, studying the rules of the road, learning road signs (in this case, the signs themselves are the signals). The semantics of words (signals) is learned by the student of any foreign language. We can say that the point of teaching computer science is to study the semantics of various signals - the essence of the key concepts of this discipline;
Pragmatics is a property that determines the influence of information on the behavior of the acquirer. Thus, the pragmatics of the information received by the reader of this textbook is, at the very least, successful passing of the computer science exam. I would like to believe that the pragmatics of this work will not be limited to this, and it will serve for the further education and professional activities of the reader.
Information is
It should be noted that signals that differ in syntax can have the same semantics. For example, the signals “computer” and “computer” mean electronic device to transform information. In this case, we usually talk about signal synonymy. On the other hand, one signal (i.e., information with one syntactic property) may have different pragmatics for consumers and different semantics. So, road sign, known as a “brick” and having a very specific semantics (“entry prohibited”), means a ban on entry for a motorist, but has no effect on a pedestrian. At the same time, the “key” signal can have different semantics: a treble clef, a spring clef, a key for opening a lock, a key used in computer science to encode a signal in order to protect it from unauthorized access (in this case they talk about signal homonymy). There are signals - antonyms that have opposite semantics. For example, “cold” and “hot”, “fast” and “slow”, etc.
The subject of study of the science of computer science is data: methods of their creation, storage, processing and transmission. And the information itself recorded in the data, its meaningful meaning, is of interest to users of information systems who are specialists in various sciences and fields of activity: a physician is interested in medical information, a geologist is interested in geological information, a businessman is interested in commercial information, etc. (In particular, a computer scientist is interested in information on working with data).
Semiotics - science of information
Information cannot be imagined without its receipt, processing, transmission, etc., that is, outside the framework of information exchange. All acts of information exchange are carried out through symbols or signs, with the help of which one system influences another. Therefore, the main science that studies information is semiotics - the science of signs and sign systems in nature and society (theory of signs). In each act of information exchange one can find three “participants”, three elements: a sign, an object that it designates, and a recipient (user) of the sign.
Depending on the relationships between which elements are considered, semiotics is divided into three sections: syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Syntactics studies signs and the relationships between them. At the same time, it abstracts from the content of the sign and its practical meaning for the recipient. Semantics studies the relationship between signs and the objects they denote, while abstracting from the recipient of the signs and the value of the latter: for him. It is clear that studying the patterns of semantic representation of objects in signs is impossible without taking into account and using the general patterns of construction of any sign systems studied by syntactics. Pragmatics studies the relationship between signs and their users. Within the framework of pragmatics, all the factors that distinguish one act of information exchange from another, all questions of the practical results of using information and its value for the recipient are studied.
In this case, many aspects of the relationships of signs with each other and with the objects they denote are inevitably affected. Thus, the three sections of semiotics correspond to three levels of abstraction (distraction) from the characteristics of specific acts of information exchange. The study of information in all its diversity corresponds to the pragmatic level. Distracting from the recipient of information, excluding him from consideration, we move on to studying it at the semantic level. With the abstraction from the content of signs, the analysis of information is transferred to the level of syntactics. This interpenetration of the main sections of semiotics, associated with different levels of abstraction, can be represented using the diagram “Three sections of semiotics and their interrelation.” The measurement of information is carried out accordingly in three aspects: syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The need for such different dimensions of information, as will be shown below, is dictated by design practice and companies operation of information systems. Let's consider a typical production situation.
At the end of the shift, the site planner prepares the production schedule data. This data enters the information and computing center (ICC) of the enterprise, where it is processed, and in the form of reports on the current state of production is issued to managers. Based on the data received, the workshop manager makes a decision to change the production plan to the next planned one or take any other organizational measures. Obviously, for the shop manager, the amount of information contained in the summary depends on the magnitude of the economic impact received from its use in decision-making, on how useful the information received was. For the site planner, the amount of information in the same message is determined by the accuracy of its correspondence with the actual state of affairs on the site and the degree of surprise of the reported facts. The more unexpected they are, the sooner you need to report them to management, the more information there is in this message. For ICC employees, the number of characters, message length, carrying information, since it is it that determines the loading time of computer equipment and communication channels. At the same time, they are practically not interested in either the usefulness of information or the quantitative measure of the semantic value of information.
Naturally, when organizing a production management system and building decision selection models, we will use the usefulness of information as a measure of the informativeness of messages. When building a system accounting and reporting that provides guidance on the progress of the production process, the measure of the amount of information should be taken as the novelty of the information received. Company The same procedures for mechanical processing of information require measuring the volume of messages in the form of the number of processed characters. These three fundamentally different approaches to measuring information are not contradictory or mutually exclusive. On the contrary, by measuring information on different scales, they allow a more complete and comprehensive assessment of the information content of each message and more effectively organize a production management system. According to the apt expression of Prof. NOT. Kobrinsky, when it comes to a rational company of information flows, the quantity, novelty, and usefulness of information are as interconnected as the quantity, quality and cost of products in production.
Information in the material world
information is one of the general concepts associated with matter. Information exists in any material object in the form of a variety of its states and is transferred from object to object in the process of their interaction. The existence of information as an objective property of matter logically follows from the known fundamental properties of matter - structure, continuous change (movement) and interaction of material objects.
The structure of matter manifests itself as the internal dismemberment of integrity, the natural order of connection of elements within the whole. In other words, any material object, from the subatomic particle of the Meta Universe (Big Bang) as a whole, is a system of interconnected subsystems. Due to continuous movement, understood in a broad sense as movement in space and development in time, material objects change their states. The states of objects also change during interactions with other objects. The set of states of a material system and all its subsystems represents information about the system.
Strictly speaking, due to uncertainty, infinity, and the properties of structure, the amount of objective information in any material object is infinite. This information is called complete. However, it is possible to distinguish structural levels with finite sets of states. Information that exists at a structural level with a finite number of states is called private. For private information, the concept of quantity of information makes sense.
From the above presentation, it is logical and simple to select a unit of measurement for the amount of information. Let's imagine a system that can be in only two equally probable states. Let's assign the code “1” to one of them, and “0” to the other. This is the minimum amount of information that the system can contain. It is a unit of measurement of information and is called a bit. There are other, more difficult to define, methods and units for measuring the amount of information.
Depending on the material form of the medium, information is of two main types - analog and discrete. Analog information changes continuously over time and takes values from a continuum of values. Discrete information changes at some points in time and takes values from a certain set of values. Any material object or process is the primary source of information. All its possible states make up the information source code. The instantaneous value of states is represented as a symbol (“letter”) of this code. In order for information to be transmitted from one object to another as a receiver, it is necessary that there be some kind of intermediate material medium that interacts with the source. Such carriers in nature, as a rule, are rapidly propagating processes of wave structure - cosmic, gamma and x-ray radiation, electromagnetic and sound waves, potentials (and perhaps not yet discovered waves) of the gravitational field. When interacting electromagnetic radiation with an object, as a result of absorption or reflection, its spectrum changes, i.e. the intensities of some wavelengths change. The harmonics of sound vibrations also change during interactions with objects. Information is also transmitted through mechanical interaction, but mechanical interaction, as a rule, leads to large changes in the structure of objects (up to their destruction), and the information is greatly distorted. Distortion of information during its transmission is called disinformation.
The transfer of source information to the structure of the medium is called encoding. In this case, the source code is converted into the carrier code. The medium with the source code transferred to it in the form of a carrier code is called a signal. The signal receiver has its own set of possible states, which is called the receiver code. A signal, interacting with a receiving object, changes its state. The process of converting a signal code into a receiver code is called decoding. The transfer of information from a source to a receiver can be considered as information interaction. Information interaction is fundamentally different from other interactions. In all other interactions of material objects, an exchange of matter and (or) energy occurs. In this case, one of the objects loses matter or energy, and the other gains it. This property of interactions is called symmetry. During information interaction, the receiver receives information, but the source does not lose it. Information interaction is asymmetrical. Objective information itself is not material, it is a property of matter, such as structure, movement, and exists on material media in the form of its own codes.
Information in wildlife
Wildlife is complex and diverse. The sources and receivers of information in it are living organisms and their cells. An organism has a number of properties that distinguish it from inanimate material objects.
Basic:
Continuous exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment;
Irritability, the body’s ability to perceive and process information about changes in the environment and internal environment of the body;
Excitability, the ability to respond to stimuli;
Self-organization, manifested as changes in the body to adapt to environmental conditions.
An organism, considered as a system, has a hierarchical structure. This structure relative to the organism itself is divided into internal levels: molecular, cellular, organ level and, finally, the organism itself. However, the organism also interacts above organismal living systems, the levels of which are population, ecosystem and all living nature as a whole (biosphere). Flows of not only matter and energy, but also information circulate between all these levels. Information interactions in living nature occur in the same way as in inanimate nature. At the same time, living nature in the process of evolution has created a wide variety of sources, carriers and receivers of information.
The reaction to the influences of the external world is manifested in all organisms, since it is caused by irritability. In higher organisms, adaptation to the external environment is a complex activity, which is effective only with sufficiently complete and timely information about the environment. The receivers of information from the external environment are their sense organs, which include vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and the vestibular apparatus. In the internal structure of organisms there are numerous internal receptors associated with the nervous system. The nervous system consists of neurons, the processes of which (axons and dendrites) are analogous to information transmission channels. The main organs that store and process information in vertebrates are the spinal cord and the brain. In accordance with the characteristics of the senses, information perceived by the body can be classified as visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile.
When the signal reaches the retina of the human eye, it excites its constituent cells in a special way. Nerve impulses from cells are transmitted through axons to the brain. The brain remembers this sensation in the form of a certain combination of states of its constituent neurons. (The example is continued in the section “information in human society”). By accumulating information, the brain creates a connected information model of the surrounding world on its structure. In living nature, an important characteristic for an organism that receives information is its availability. The amount of information that the human nervous system is capable of sending to the brain when reading texts is approximately 1 bit per 1/16 s.
Information is
The study of organisms is complicated by their complexity. The abstraction of structure as a mathematical set, which is acceptable for inanimate objects, is hardly acceptable for a living organism, because in order to create a more or less adequate abstract model of an organism, it is necessary to take into account all the hierarchical levels of its structure. Therefore, it is difficult to introduce a measure of the amount of information. It is very difficult to determine the connections between the components of the structure. If it is known which organ is the source of information, then what is the signal and what is the receiver?
Before the advent of computers, biology, which deals with the study of living organisms, used only qualitative, i.e. descriptive models. In a qualitative model, it is almost impossible to take into account information connections between the components of the structure. Electronic computing technology has made it possible to apply new methods in biological research, in particular, the machine modeling method, which involves a mathematical description of known phenomena and processes occurring in the body, adding to them hypotheses about some unknown processes and calculation possible options organism behavior. The resulting options are compared with the actual behavior of the organism, which makes it possible to determine the truth or falsity of the hypotheses put forward. Such models can also take into account information interaction. The information processes that ensure the existence of life itself are extremely complex. And although it is intuitively clear that this property is directly related to the formation, storage and transmission of complete information about the structure of the organism, an abstract description of this phenomenon seemed impossible for some time. However, the information processes that ensure the existence of this property have been partially revealed through deciphering the genetic code and reading the genomes of various organisms.
Information in human society
The development of matter in the process of movement is directed towards complicating the structure of material objects. One of the most complex structures is the human brain. So far, this is the only structure known to us that has a property that man himself calls consciousness. Speaking about information, we, as thinking beings, a priori mean that information, in addition to its presence in the form of signals we receive, also has some meaning. By forming a model of the surrounding world in his mind as an interconnected set of models of its objects and processes, a person uses semantic concepts rather than information. Meaning is the essence of any phenomenon that does not coincide with itself and connects it with the broader context of reality. The word itself directly indicates that the semantic content of information can only be formed by thinking receivers of information. In human society, it is not the information itself that is of decisive importance, but its semantic content.
Example (continued). Having experienced such a sensation, a person assigns the concept “tomato” to the object, and the concept “red color” to its state. In addition, his consciousness fixes the connection: “tomato” - “red”. This is the meaning of the received signal. (Example continued below in this section). The brain's ability to create meaningful concepts and connections between them is the basis of consciousness. Consciousness can be considered as a self-developing semantic model of the surrounding world. Meaning is not information. Information exists only on a tangible medium. Human consciousness is considered immaterial. Meaning exists in the human mind in the form of words, images and sensations. A person can pronounce words not only out loud, but also “to himself.” He can also create (or remember) images and sensations “in his own mind.” However, he can retrieve information corresponding to this meaning by speaking or writing words.
Information is
Example (continued). If the words “tomato” and “red” are the meaning of the concepts, then where is the information? information is contained in the brain in the form of certain states of its neurons. It is also contained in printed text consisting of these words, and when letters are encoded in three-digit binary code its quantity is 120 bits. If you say the words out loud, there will be much more information, but the meaning will remain the same. The visual image carries the greatest amount of information. This is reflected even in folklore - “it’s better to see once than to hear a hundred times.” The information restored in this way is called semantic information, since it encodes the meaning of some primary information (semantics). Having heard (or seen) a phrase spoken (or written) in a language that a person does not know, he receives information, but cannot determine its meaning. Therefore, to transmit the semantic content of information, some agreements between the source and the receiver on the semantic content of the signals are necessary, i.e. words Such agreements can be achieved through communication. Communication is one of the most important conditions for the existence of human society.
IN modern world information is one of the most important resources and, at the same time, one of the driving forces in the development of human society. Information processes occurring in the material world, living nature and human society are studied (or at least taken into account) by all scientific disciplines from philosophy to marketing. The increasing complexity of scientific research problems has led to the need to attract large teams of scientists from different specialties to solve them. Therefore, almost all of the theories discussed below are interdisciplinary. Historically, two complex branches of science—cybernetics and computer science—are engaged in the study of information itself.
Modern cybernetics is a multidisciplinary industry science that studies highly complex systems, such as:
Human society (social cybernetics);
Economics (economic cybernetics);
Living organism (biological cybernetics);
The human brain and its function is consciousness (artificial intelligence).
Computer science, formed as a science in the middle of the last century, separated from cybernetics and is engaged in research in the field of methods for obtaining, storing, transmitting and processing semantic information. Both of these industry use several underlying scientific theories. These include information theory, and its sections - coding theory, algorithm theory and automata theory. Research into the semantic content of information is based on a set of scientific theories under the general name semiotics. Information theory is a complex, mainly mathematical theory that includes a description and assessment of methods for retrieving, transmitting, storing and classifying information. Considers information media as elements of an abstract (mathematical) set, and interactions between media as a way of arranging elements in this set. This approach makes it possible to formally describe the information code, that is, to define an abstract code and study it using mathematical methods. For these studies he uses methods of probability theory, mathematical statistics, linear algebra, game theory and other mathematical theories.
The foundations of this theory were laid by the American scientist E. Hartley in 1928, who determined the measure of the amount of information for certain communication problems. Later, the theory was significantly developed by the American scientist K. Shannon, Russian scientists A.N. Kolmogorov, V.M. Glushkov and others. Modern information theory includes sections such as coding theory, algorithm theory, digital automata theory (see below) and some others. There are also alternative information theories, for example “Qualitative Information Theory”, proposed by the Polish scientist M. Mazur. Every person is familiar with the concept of an algorithm, without even knowing it. Here is an example of an informal algorithm: “Cut the tomatoes into circles or slices. Place chopped onion in them, pour in vegetable oil, then sprinkle with finely chopped capsicum and stir. Before eating, sprinkle with salt, place in a salad bowl and garnish with parsley.” (Tomato salad).
The first rules for solving arithmetic problems in the history of mankind were developed by one of the famous scientists of antiquity, Al-Khorezmi, in the 9th century AD. In his honor, formalized rules for achieving any goal are called algorithms. The subject of the theory of algorithms is to find methods for constructing and evaluating effective (including universal) computational and control algorithms for information processing. To substantiate such methods, the theory of algorithms uses the mathematical apparatus of information theory. The modern scientific concept of algorithms as methods of information processing was introduced in the works of E. Post and A. Turing in the 20s of the twentieth century (Turing Machine). Russian scientists A. Markov (Markov's Normal Algorithm) and A. Kolmogorov made a great contribution to the development of the theory of algorithms. Automata theory is a branch of theoretical cybernetics that studies mathematical models of actually existing or fundamentally possible devices that process discrete information at discrete moments in time.
The concept of an automaton arose in the theory of algorithms. If there are some universal algorithms for solving computational problems, then there must also be devices (albeit abstract) for implementing such algorithms. Actually, an abstract Turing machine, considered in the theory of algorithms, is at the same time an informally defined automaton. The theoretical justification for the construction of such devices is the subject of automata theory. Automata theory uses the apparatus of mathematical theories - algebra, mathematical logic, combinatorial analysis, graph theory, probability theory, etc. Automata theory, together with the theory of algorithms, is the main theoretical basis for the creation of electronic computers and automated control systems. Semiotics is a complex of scientific theories that study the properties of sign systems. The most significant results have been achieved in the branch of semiotics—semantics. The subject of semantics research is the semantic content of information.
A sign system is considered to be a system of concrete or abstract objects (signs, words), with each of which a certain meaning is associated in a certain way. In theory, it has been proven that there can be two such comparisons. The first type of correspondence directly determines the material object that this word denotes and is called a denotation (or, in some works, a nominee). The second type of correspondence determines the meaning of a sign (word) and is called a concept. At the same time, such properties of comparisons as “meaning”, “truth”, “definability”, “following”, “interpretation”, etc. are studied. For research, the apparatus of mathematical logic and mathematical linguistics is used. Ideas of semantics, outlined by G. V. Leibniz and F de Saussure in the 19th century, formulated and developed by C. Pierce (1839-1914), C. Morris (b. 1901), R. Carnap (1891-1970), etc. The main achievement of the theory is the creation of a semantic analysis apparatus that allows one to represent the meaning of a text in a natural language in the form of a record in some formalized semantic (semantic) language. Semantic analysis is the basis for creating devices (programs) for machine translation from one natural language to another.
Information is stored by transferring it to some physical media. Semantic information recorded on a tangible storage medium is called a document. Humanity learned to store information a very long time ago. The most ancient forms of storing information used the arrangement of objects - shells and stones on the sand, knots on a rope. A significant development of these methods was writing - the graphic representation of symbols on stone, clay, papyrus, and paper. Of great importance in the development of this direction was invention book printing. Over its history, humanity has accumulated a huge amount of information in libraries, archives, periodicals and other written documents.
Currently, storing information in the form of sequences of binary characters has gained particular importance. To implement these methods, a variety of storage devices are used. They are the central link of information storage systems. In addition to them, such systems use means of searching for information (search engine), means of obtaining information (information and reference systems) and means of displaying information (output device). Formed according to the purpose of the information, such information systems form databases, data banks and a knowledge base.
The transfer of semantic information is the process of its spatial transfer from the source to the recipient (addressee). Man learned to transmit and receive information even earlier than to store it. Speech is a method of transmission that our distant ancestors used in direct contact (conversation) - we still use it now. To transmit information over long distances, it is necessary to use much more complex information processes. To carry out such a process, information must be formatted (presented) in some way. To present information, various sign systems are used—sets of predetermined semantic symbols: objects, pictures, written or printed words of natural language. Semantic information about any object, phenomenon or process presented with their help is called a message.
Obviously, in order to transmit a message over a distance, information must be transferred to some kind of mobile medium. Carriers can move in space using Vehicle, as happens with letters sent by mail. This method ensures complete reliability of the transmission of information, since the addressee receives the original message, but requires significant time for transmission. Since the middle of the 19th century, methods of transmitting information have become widespread using a naturally propagating information carrier - electromagnetic vibrations (electrical vibrations, radio waves, light). Implementation of these methods requires:
Preliminary transfer of information contained in a message to a medium - encoding;
Ensuring the transmission of the signal thus received to the recipient via a special communication channel;
Reverse conversion of the signal code into a message code - decoding.
Information is
The use of electromagnetic media makes the delivery of a message to the addressee almost instantaneous, but requires additional measures to ensure the quality (reliability and accuracy) of the transmitted information, since real communication channels are subject to natural and artificial interference. Devices that implement the data transfer process form communication systems. Depending on the method of presenting information, communication systems can be divided into sign (, telefax), sound (), video and combined systems (television). The most developed communication system in our time is the Internet.
Data processing
Since information is not material, its processing involves various transformations. Processing processes include any transfer of information from a medium to another medium. Information intended for processing is called data. The main type of processing of primary information received by various devices is transformation into a form that ensures its perception by the human senses. Thus, photographs of space obtained in X-rays are converted into ordinary color photographs using special spectrum converters and photographic materials. Night vision devices convert the image obtained in infrared (thermal) rays into an image in the visible range. For some communication and control tasks, conversion of analog information is necessary. For this purpose, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal converters are used.
The most important type of processing of semantic information is determining the meaning (content) contained in a certain message. Unlike primary semantic information, it does not have statistical characteristics, that is, a quantitative measure - either there is meaning or there is not. And how much it is, if any, is impossible to establish. The meaning contained in the message is described in an artificial language that reflects the semantic connections between the words of the source text. A dictionary of such a language, called a thesaurus, is located in the message receiver. The meaning of words and phrases in a message is determined by assigning them to certain groups of words or phrases, the meaning of which has already been established. The thesaurus, thus, allows you to establish the meaning of the message and, at the same time, is replenished with new semantic concepts. The described type of information processing is used in information retrieval systems and machine translation systems.
One of the widespread types of information processing is the solution of computational problems and automatic control problems using computers. Information processing is always carried out for some purpose. To achieve it, the order of actions on information leading to a given goal must be known. This procedure is called an algorithm. In addition to the algorithm itself, you also need some device that implements this algorithm. In scientific theories, such a device is called an automaton. It should be noted that the most important feature of information is the fact that due to the asymmetry of information interaction, new information appears when processing information, but the original information is not lost.
Analog and digital information
Sound is wave vibrations in any medium, for example in air. When a person speaks, the vibrations of the throat ligaments are converted into wave vibrations of the air. If we consider sound not as a wave, but as vibrations at one point, then these vibrations can be represented as air pressure changing over time. Using a microphone, pressure changes can be detected and converted into electrical voltage. Air pressure is converted into electrical voltage fluctuations.
Such a transformation can occur according to various laws, most often the transformation occurs according to a linear law. For example, like this:
U(t)=K(P(t)-P_0),
where U(t) is the electrical voltage, P(t) is the air pressure, P_0 is the average air pressure, and K is the conversion factor.
Both electrical voltage and air pressure are continuous functions over time. The functions U(t) and P(t) are information about the vibrations of the throat ligaments. These functions are continuous and such information is called analog. Music is a special case of sound and it can also be represented as some kind of function of time. It will be analog representation music. But music is also written down in the form of notes. Each note has a duration that is a multiple of a predetermined duration, and a pitch (do, re, mi, fa, salt, etc.). If this data is converted into numbers, we get a digital representation of the music.
Human speech is also a special case of sound. It can also be represented in analog form. But just as music can be broken down into notes, speech can be broken down into letters. If each letter is given its own set of numbers, then we will get a digital representation of speech. The difference between analog and digital information is that analog information is continuous, while digital information is discrete. The transformation of information from one type to another, depending on the type of transformation, is called differently: simply "conversion", such as digital-to-analog conversion, or analog-to-digital conversion; complex transformations are called "coding", for example, delta coding, entropy coding; The conversion between characteristics such as amplitude, frequency or phase is called "modulation", for example amplitude-frequency modulation, pulse-width modulation.
Information is
Typically, analog conversions are quite simple and easy to handle. various devices invented by man. A tape recorder converts magnetization on film into sound, a voice recorder converts sound into magnetization on film, a video camera converts light into magnetization on film, an oscilloscope converts electrical voltage or current into an image, etc. Converting analogue information to digital is much more difficult. The machine cannot make some transformations or succeeds with great difficulty. For example, converting speech into text, or converting a recording of a concert into sheet music, and even an inherently digital representation: text on paper is very difficult for a machine to convert into the same text in computer memory.
Information is
Why then use digital representation of information if it is so complex? The main advantage of digital information over analog information is noise immunity. That is, in the process of copying information, digital information is copied as it is, it can be copied almost an infinite number of times, while analog information becomes noisy during the copying process, and its quality deteriorates. Typically, analogue information can be copied no more than three times. If you have a two-cassette audio recorder, you can perform the following experiment: try rewriting the same song several times from cassette to cassette; after just a few such re-recordings you will notice how much The recording quality has deteriorated. The information on the cassette is stored in analog form. You can rewrite music in mp3 format as many times as you like, and the quality of the music does not deteriorate. The information in an mp3 file is stored digitally.
Amount of information
A person or some other receiver of information, having received a piece of information, resolves some uncertainty. Let's take the same tree as an example. When we saw the tree, we resolved a number of uncertainties. We learned the height of the tree, the type of tree, the density of the foliage, the color of the leaves and, if it was a fruit tree, then we saw the fruits on it, how ripe they were, etc. Before we looked at the tree, we did not know all this, after we looked at the tree, we resolved the uncertainty - we received information.
If we go out into a meadow and look at it, we will get a different kind of information, how big the meadow is, how tall the grass is and what color the grass is. If a biologist goes to this same meadow, then, among other things, he will be able to find out: what varieties of grass grow in the meadow, what type of meadow it is, he will see what flowers have bloomed, which ones are about to bloom, whether the meadow is suitable for grazing cows, etc. That is, he will receive more information than we do, since he had more questions before he looked at the meadow, the biologist will resolve more uncertainties.
Information is
The more uncertainty was resolved in the process of obtaining information, the more information we received. But this is a subjective measure of the amount of information, and we would like to have an objective measure. There is a formula for calculating the amount of information. We have some uncertainty, and we have N number of cases of resolution of the uncertainty, and each case has a certain probability of resolution, then the amount of information received can be calculated using the following formula that Shannon suggested to us:
I = -(p_1 log_(2)p_1 + p_2 log_(2)p_2 +... +p_N log_(2)p_N), where
I - amount of information;
N - number of outcomes;
p_1, p_2,..., p_N are the probabilities of the outcome.
Information is
The amount of information is measured in bits - short for English words BInary digiT, which means binary digit.
For equally probable events, the formula can be simplified:
I = log_(2)N, where
I - amount of information;
N is the number of outcomes.
Let's take, for example, a coin and throw it on the table. It will land either heads or tails. We have 2 equally probable events. After we tossed the coin, we received log_(2)2=1 bit of information.
Let's try to find out how much information we get after we roll the dice. The cube has six sides - six equally probable events. We get: log_(2)6 approx 2.6. After we threw the die on the table, we received approximately 2.6 bits of information.
The odds of us seeing a Martian dinosaur when we leave the house are one in ten billion. How much information will we get about the Martian dinosaur once we leave home?
Left(((1 over (10^(10))) log_2(1 over (10^(10))) + left(( 1 - (1 over (10^(10)))) ight) log_2 left(( 1 - (1 over (10^(10))) ight)) ight) approx 3.4 cdot 10^(-9) bits.
Let's say we tossed 8 coins. We have 2^8 coin drop options. This means that after tossing coins we will get log_2(2^8)=8 bits of information.
When we ask a question and are equally likely to receive a “yes” or “no” answer, then after answering the question we receive one bit of information.
It's amazing that if we apply Shannon's formula to analog information, we get an infinite amount of information. For example, the voltage at a point electrical circuit can take an equally probable value from zero to one volt. The number of outcomes we have is equal to infinity, and by substituting this value into the formula for equally probable events, we get infinity - an infinite amount of information.
Now I will show you how to encode “war and peace” using just one mark on any metal rod. Let's encode all the letters and characters found in " war and peace”, using two-digit numbers - they should be enough for us. For example, we will give the letter “A” the code “00”, the letter “B” the code “01” and so on, we will encode punctuation marks, Latin letters and numbers. Let's recode " war and the world" using this code and get a long number, for example, 70123856383901874..., add a comma and a zero in front of this number (0.70123856383901874...). The result is a number from zero to one. Let's put risk on a metal rod so that the ratio of the left side of the rod to the length of this rod is equal to exactly our number. Thus, if suddenly we want to read “war and peace”, we will simply measure the left side of the rod to risks and the length of the entire rod, divide one number by another, get a number and recode it back into letters (“00” into “A”, “01” into “B”, etc.).
Information is
In reality, we will not be able to do this, since we will not be able to determine the lengths with infinite accuracy. Some engineering problems prevent us from increasing the accuracy of measurements, and quantum physics shows us that after a certain limit, quantum laws will already interfere with us. Intuitively, we understand that the lower the measurement accuracy, the less information we receive, and the greater the measurement accuracy, the more information we receive. Shannon's formula is not suitable for measuring the amount of analog information, but there are other methods for this, which are discussed in Information Theory. IN computer technology the bit corresponds to the physical state of the information carrier: magnetized - not magnetized, there is a hole - no hole, charged - not charged, reflects light - does not reflect light, high electrical potential - low electrical potential. In this case, one state is usually denoted by the number 0, and the other by the number 1. Any information can be encoded with a sequence of bits: text, image, sound, etc.
Along with a bit, a value called a byte is often used; it is usually equal to 8 bits. And if a bit allows you to choose one equally probable option from two possible ones, then a byte is 1 out of 256 (2^8). To measure the amount of information, it is also common to use larger units:
1 KB (one kilobyte) 210 bytes = 1024 bytes
1 MB (one megabyte) 210 KB = 1024 KB
1 GB (one gigabyte) 210 MB = 1024 MB
In reality, the SI prefixes kilo-, mega-, giga- should be used for the factors 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9, respectively, but historically there has been a practice of using factors with powers of two.
A Shannon bit and a bit used in computer technology are the same if the probabilities of a zero or a one appearing in a computer bit are equal. If the probabilities are not equal, then the amount of information according to Shannon becomes less, we saw this in the example of the Martian dinosaur. The computer quantity of information provides an upper estimate of the quantity of information. Volatile memory, after power is applied to it, is usually initialized with some value, for example, all ones or all zeros. It is clear that after power is applied to the memory, there is no information there, since the values in the memory cells are strictly defined, there is no uncertainty. Memory can store a certain amount of information, but after power is applied to it, there is no information in it.
Disinformation is deliberately false information provided to an enemy or business partner for more effective conduct of military operations, cooperation, checking for information leakage and the direction of its leakage, identifying potential clients of the black market. Also disinformation (also misinformed) is the process of manipulating information itself, such as: misleading someone by providing incomplete information or complete, but no longer necessary information, distortion of context, distortion of part of the information.
The goal of such influence is always the same - the opponent must act as the manipulator needs. The action of the target against whom disinformation is directed may consist in making a decision that the manipulator needs or in refusing to make a decision that is unfavorable for the manipulator. But in any case, the final goal is the action that will be taken by the opponent.
Disinformation, then, is product human activity, an attempt to create a false impression and, accordingly, push to the desired actions and/or inaction.
Information is
Types of disinformation:
Misleading a specific person or group of people (including an entire nation);
Manipulation (the actions of one person or group of people);
Creating public opinion regarding a problem or object.
Information is
Misrepresentation is nothing more than outright deception, the provision of false information. Manipulation is a method of influence aimed directly at changing the direction of people’s activity. The following levels of manipulation are distinguished:
Strengthening the values (ideas, attitudes) that exist in people’s minds and are beneficial to the manipulator;
Partial change in views on a particular event or circumstance;
A radical change in life attitudes.
Creating public opinion is the formation in society of a certain attitude towards a chosen problem.
Sources and links
ru.wikipedia.org - free encyclopedia Wikipedia
youtube.com - YouTube video hosting
images.yandex.ua - Yandex pictures
google.com.ua - Google images
ru.wikibooks.org - Wikibooks
inf1.info - Planet Informatics
old.russ.ru - Russian Magazine
shkolo.ru - Information directory
5byte.ru - Computer science website
ssti.ru - Information technologies
klgtu.ru - Computer Science
informatika.sch880.ru - website of computer science teacher O.V. Podvintseva
Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies
The basic concept of cybernetics, in the same way, economic I. the basic concept of economic cybernetics. There are many definitions of this term, they are complex and contradictory. The reason for this, obviously, is that I. deals with the phenomenon... ... Economic and mathematical dictionary
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