Information

According to modern concepts, information is considered intangible, and what is contained in the structure of objects is usually called data ( representation form - ISO / IEC / IEEE 24765: 2010).

For studies of the self-organization of dynamical systems, Henry Castler proposed the following definition: “Information is a remembered choice of one option from several possible and equal” ^[12] .

The word "information" comes from lat. informatio , which in translation means information, clarification, acquaintance . The concept of information was considered even by ancient philosophers .

The Latin words “de saxis informibus” from the Vulgate of Jerome (342-419) are translated as “from whole stones” ( Deut. 27: 6 ), and the words “informem adhuc me”, which are translated as “My germ” ( Psalm 138: 16 ) can also be translated as “formless yet me”, because it is precisely how “still shapeless” the words “adhuc informem” are translated from Confession of Augustine (354-430).

The Italian word “informa” in the Comedy of Dante (1265-1321) is no longer simply a formless process, but the process of formation, education, creation (Ch. XVII 16-18, Ch. XXV 40-42, R. VII 133-138).

In the modern world, information is one of the most important resources and, at the same time, one of the driving forces for the development of human society. Information processes taking place in the material world, wildlife and human society are studied (or at least taken into account) by all scientific disciplines from philosophy to marketing .

Historically, the study of information directly involved two complex branches of science - cybernetics and computer science .

Computer science, which formed as a science in the middle of the 20th century, has separated from cybernetics and is engaged in research in the field of methods for obtaining, storing, transmitting and processing semantic information.

Studies of the semantic content of information are based on a set of scientific theories under the general name semiotics .

In Russia, the philosophical problems of the concept of “information” was developed starting in the 1960s , when an article by A. D. Ursula “The Nature of Information” was published. Since then, explicitly or implicitly, basically two concepts of information have been considered: attributive , according to which information is characteristic of all physical systems and processes (A.D. Ursul, I. B. Novik, L. B. Bazhenov, L. A. Petrushenko and others) and functional — information is inherent only in self-organizing systems (P. V. Kopnin, A. M. Korshunov, V. S. Tyukhtin, B. S. Ukraintsev and others) ^[13] .

But if, for example, even a shallow analysis of the content of the most common attributive and functional concepts regarding information is made, it will become clear that both of these concepts ultimately rely on the objective property of matter, established back in the 19th century and indicated by the philosophical category “ reflection". However, in both concepts, insufficient attention is paid to the study of the obvious reality, which manifests itself in the fact that information in the forms in which it exists today is a product of human consciousness, which itself is a product of a higher form (from known forms) of matter.

In other words, supporters of both concepts, ignoring people, ignoring the nature of human consciousness, immediately attribute information (a product of consciousness) to the property of matter and immediately call it the “attribute of matter”. Due to this error, both concepts cannot provide us with a strict definition of information as concepts, since human concepts are filled with content as a result of a person’s communication with objective reality, and not as a result of operating, albeit sophisticated, outwardly convincing, plausible inferences, by other concepts. Attempts to present information as a category are also doomed to failure. It’s enough to take into account that human practice over the past decades has so quickly changed the forms and contents of concepts, as well as their ideas and attitudes towards what is commonly called “information” today, that the nature, essence of information and, naturally, the content of this concept (if still consider it a concept) changed significantly over time ^[14] .

Information can be divided into types according to various criteria:

• By the method of perception :
  • Visual - perceived by the organs of vision .
  • Sound - perceived by the organs of hearing .
  • Tactile - perceived by tactile receptors.
  • Olfactory - Perceived by the olfactory receptors.
  • Flavoring - perceived by taste buds.
  • Electro-magnetic - perceived through specific interactions as an "electric machine".
• According to the presentation form :
  • Textual - transmitted in the form of characters intended to indicate language tokens.
  • Numeric - in the form of numbers and signs denoting mathematical actions.
  • Graphic - in the form of images, objects, graphs.
  • Sound - oral or in the form of recording and transmission of language tokens in an audio way.
  • Video information - transmitted in the form of video recording .
  • code-signal - a sequence of predefined signals: gestures, facial expressions, control signals of the machine
• By appointment :
  • Mass - contains trivial information and operates with a set of concepts that are 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 necessary and understandable within a narrow social group where this information is used.
  • Secret - transmitted to a narrow circle of persons and through closed (protected) channels.
  • Personal (private) - a set of information about an individual that determines the social status and types of social interactions within a population.

• By value:
  • Actual - information valuable at a given time.
  • Reliable - information obtained without distortion from reliable sources.
  • Clear - information expressed in a language understandable to the person to whom it is intended.
  • Full - information sufficient to make the right decision or understanding.
  • Useful - the usefulness of information is determined by the subject who received the information depending on the volume of possibilities for its use.

• In truth:
  • True
  • False .
  • Variable confidence.

The classification is based on five common features:

• Place of occurrence.
• Stage of processing.
• Display method.
• Stability .
• Control function.

In Math

In mathematics, information is the general name of fundamental concepts in computer science, information theory, cybernetics, as well as in mathematical statistics, in which a generalized intuitive idea of ​​information regarding any quantities or phenomena is specified and formalized ^[15] .

In Computer Science

The subject of computer science is precisely the data : methods for their creation, storage, processing and transmission ^[16] . Data is information in a formalized form (in digital form), allowing to automate its collection, storage and further processing in a computer. From this point of view, information is an abstract concept considered without regard to its semantic aspect, and the amount of information usually refers to the corresponding amount of data . However, the same data can be encoded in different ways and at the same time have a different volume, therefore the concept of “value of information” is sometimes considered, which is associated with the concept of information entropy and is the subject of study of information theory .

In Information Theory

Information Theory ( mathematical communication theory ) - studies the processes of storage, transformation and transmission of information. It is based on scientific methods for measuring the amount of information ^[17] . Information theory has evolved from the needs of communication theory. Fundamental are considered "Works on the theory of information and cybernetics ^[18] " by Claude Shannon , published in 1948. Information theory studies the limits of capabilities of data transmission systems , as well as the basic principles of their design and technical implementation ^[19] .

Information technology is associated with radio engineering ( signal processing theory) and informatics related to measuring the amount of information transmitted, its properties and establishing limit relations for systems. The main sections of information theory are source coding ( compression coding ) and channel (noise-immunity) coding. Information is not a subject of mathematics research. Nevertheless, the word "information" is used in mathematical terms - its own information and mutual information related to the abstract (mathematical) part of the theory of information. 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 broader - 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 Claude Shannon, the author of the theory of information. 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 available to measurement. However, he warns researchers against the mechanical transfer of concepts from his theory to other fields of science. .

In control theory (cybernetics)

The founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, gave the following definition of information: “Information is a designation of content that we received from the outside world in the process of adapting us and our feelings to it” ^[5] .

Cybernetics considers machines and living organisms as systems that perceive, accumulate and transmit information, as well as process it into signals that determine their own activities ^[15] .

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. In nature, many states of a system are information; the states themselves are primary or source code . Thus, each material system is a source of information.

Cybernetics defines subjective (semantic) information as the meaning or content of a message. Information is a characteristic of an object.

In Algorithm Theory

In semiotics

Semiotics is a complex of scientific theories that study the properties of sign systems. The most significant results are achieved in the section of semiotics - semantics . The subject of semantics research is the meaning of language units, that is, information transmitted through language.

A sign system is a system of concrete or abstract objects (signs, words), with each of which in a certain way a certain value is associated. It has been proved in theory that there can be two such comparisons. The first type of correspondence directly determines the material object, which denotes this word and is called denotate (or, in some works, - nominate). The second type of correspondence determines the meaning of the sign (word) and is called the concept. At the same time, such properties of comparisons as “sense”, “truth”, “definability”, “following”, “interpretation”, etc. are investigated. For research, the apparatus of mathematical logic and mathematical linguistics is used.

The ideas of semantics, outlined by G.V. Leibniz and F. de Saussure in the 19th century, were formulated and developed by C. Pierce (1839-1914), C. Morris (1901-1979), R. Carnap (1891-1970), etc. .

The main achievement of the theory is the creation of a semantic analysis apparatus, which allows us 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 machine translation devices (programs) from one natural language to another.

In Law

Any information, messages, data, regardless of their design, are information - tangible or intangible object, participating in any relationship. The development of technological capabilities for processing and transmitting information has made it an independent subject of production, management, ideological and personal relations. Information has become a commodity, product, a subject of labor and an object of services. In the system of legal relations, it is considered by information law . Some international legal acts and laws of a number of countries (including Russia) proclaim a human right to freely search, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information in any way that does not violate laws ^[3] .

In Physics

The quantum theory of information considers the general laws of transmission, storage and transformation of information in systems that change according to the laws of quantum mechanics ^[20] .

Disinformation (also misinformation) is one of the ways to manipulate information, such as misleading someone by providing incomplete information or complete but no longer needed information, or complete but not in the right area, distortion of the context, distortion of part of the information.

The goal of such an impact is always the same - the opponent must do as the manipulator needs it. The act of the object against which the misinformation is directed may consist in making the decision necessary for the manipulator or in refusing to make a decision unfavorable for the manipulator. But in any case, the ultimate goal is the action that will be taken.

• Pieter Adriaans. Information . // Stanford Philosophical Encyclopedia , 2012. (English)
• Adriaans, Pieter, van Benthem, Johan. Introduction: Information is what information does . // Dov M. Gabbay, Pieter Adriaans, Paul Thagard, Johan van Benthem, John Woods (eds.): Philosophy of Information. Amsterdam. S. 4. (English)
• Glick D. Information. Story. Theory. Flow. - M. - 576 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-080465-8 .
• Stratonovich R. L. Information Theory M .: Sov. Radio, 1975 .-- 424 p.
• Ursul A.D. Nature of information. - M .: Politizdat , 1968 .-- 288 p.
• Ursul A. D. Information Problem in Modern Science. - M .: Science, 1975.
• Chernavsky D.S. Synergetics and information (dynamic information theory). - URSS editorial, 2004. - ISBN 5-354-00241-9 .
• Melik-Gaykazyan I.V. Information processes and reality. - M .: Science, Fizmatlit, 1997 .-- 192 p. - ISBN 5-02-015086-X .
• Khurgin V. On the definition of the concept of “information” // Information Resources of Russia. - 2007. - No. 3 .
• Informatics: Textbook / Ed. prof. N.V. Makarova. - M.: Finance and statistics. - 2006 .-- 768 p.

• Statements by researchers of the phenomenon of information .