Newton made these terms into quantities, suitable for use in mathematical formulas. Three centuries earlier, the new discipline of physics could not proceed until Isaac Newton appropriated words that were ancient and vague - force, mass, motion, and even time - and gave them new meanings. The “flood” explains how biology uses genetics as a mechanism for information exchange and self-replicating memes.įor the purposes of science, information had to mean something special. The “theory” touches on Claude Shannon, Norbert Wiener, and Alan Turing among others who laid the foundation. The “history” explores African drum languages, writing and lexicography, the story of Morse code, the telegraph and telephone, and brings us into computing with our desire to increase the efficiency with which we communicate language. It is not even the distribution of knowledge. It is not the amount of knowledge that makes a brain. “When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.” Information is something we are all curious about but how accurately can we predict the future if we fail to understand the past? This is part of what noted science writer James Gleick explores in The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood. One point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point. “The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at
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