Information, matter and energy have become the three major elements of the real world. People perceive, receive, disseminate and use information almost all the time.
Because there are many branches related to information, there are many definitions of information, which are discussed from the perspectives of philosophy, sociology, psychology, linguistics, neurophysiology, communication, information science, library science and information science. In the field of philosophy, information is considered as the basis of human epistemology; A theory considered as entropy in physics; Mathematics is considered as a new development of probability theory; In economics, it is considered as the general term of data, information and knowledge; In information theory, it is considered as a general object that can be acquired, transformed, transmitted, stored, processed, identified and utilized, which can eliminate accidents and increase the effectiveness of achieving goals; In cybernetics, it is understood as a signal and tool to adjust the outside world, and it is the content and name that people exchange with the outside world in order to adapt to the outside world.
Generally speaking, information is defined as follows:
2. Definition of1.1.1wiener
1948, norbert wiener put forward in his monograph Cybernetics-Communication and Control in Animals and Machines: "Information is neither material nor energy, and information is information." This definition only distinguishes the relationship between information, matter and energy, and does not specify what information is, so it is not a strict definition.
2. 1. 1.2 Definition of Shennong
1948, Shen Nong, the founder of information theory and an engineer of Bell Laboratories, published the article "Mathematical Theory of Communication" in Bell System Telephone, pointing out that "information is used to reduce random uncertainty." What is random and what is uncertain is decided in the process of communication. The signal starts from the source, passes through the channel and reaches the destination. This definition considers the random uncertainty of information, but fails to include the content and value of information, and does not solve the problem of what information is.
2. 1. 1.3 Definitions in System Theory
In system theory, information is defined as a measure of system organization. First of all, the composition of information should take care of each other from beginning to end, connect before and after, and be self-contained, so as to reflect objective things systematically, comprehensively and essentially. If information is not systematized, it is impossible to systematically and comprehensively reflect objective things. Secondly, the content reflected by information should be relevant to prevent isolation, static and one-sidedness.
2. 1. 1.4 Definition in epistemology
The epistemological definition of information first requires that information and reflection have the same content, structure and category, and they have the same characteristics; Secondly, the operation process of information, especially system information, naturally conforms to the development process of people's understanding from shallow to deep and from low to high. It is precisely because of the above principles that information has become the most extensive, effective and reasonable bridge and medium between subjectivity and objectivity, existence and consciousness, and theory and practice.
2. 1. 1.5 Definitions in Hermeneutics
Information reveals the true meaning of a word and an article. Interpretation is the meaning of explanation and explanation. The purpose of interpretation can be summarized as: to confirm the true meaning of a word and a text, and to reveal the implied indication of a symbol. Therefore, the object of explaining the research results is a word, a text and a symbol. The most important rule in hermeneutic method is hermeneutic cycle, that is, the understanding of parts is guided by the overall meaning, and the overall understanding depends on the understanding of parts.
From the above definition of information, we can know that people's understanding of information is a gradual and in-depth process, and this process is still going on. There are many different views on the concept of information from different angles and levels, but in essence, information is the state of motion and the way of existence of things.
To sum up, information is the reflection of the characteristics and changes of various things in the objective world, and it is the reappearance of these characteristics and changes after being processed by the human brain. It is the general name of data, news and intelligence that have certain use value to the recipients after processing. Information can generally be divided into data, text, sound, images and so on according to the forms of expression.
2. 1.2 Basic characteristics of information
2. 1.2. 1 Information comes from both the material world and the spiritual world.
Matter in the objective world is an important source of information, and the motion state and mode of matter are information perceived or expressed by cognitive subjects, but information is not matter itself, it is not equal to matter, and information can exist independently from its source matter. It is precisely because of this feature that wonderful cultural programs, space wonders and other information can be recorded for repeated viewing and research. For example, when an object is in motion, its motion state and the way its state changes can be photographed by a high-speed camera. After some processing, it can be reproduced. This kind of reproduction is obviously not the material itself, but the information that has been preserved.
People's thinking process is also one of the sources of information, which is expressed in the form of people's mental state, will, principles, policies, orders, instructions and so on. Like the information generated in the objective world, the information in the spiritual world and the field of thinking can be relatively independent and can be recorded, saved, copied or reproduced.
2. 1.2.2 Information has the nature of knowledge.
Extract information from the data that records the motion state and form of objective things. Information can change people's knowledge state, make people gradually master the movement law of objective things, make people change from "unknown" to "known", or from "knowing less" to "knowing more", but information is not necessarily knowledge. For example, when the school bell rings, the message conveyed by the bell is: it's time for class, but the message expressed by the bell is not universal and cannot be called knowledge. Although some information can tell people what the moving state of things is and how this state will change, it may not be universal and abstract, so it may not be called knowledge itself.
2. 1.2.3 Information is concrete and can be perceived, extracted and recognized by people (creatures, appliances, etc.). ) and can be transmitted, converted, processed, stored, retrieved and utilized.
Information is not illusory, nor can it be imagined and "created" at will. It is a description of the movement state and state change mode of all kinds of things in the real world, and it has a very concrete and true character. Information can be perceived, and human sensory organs are used to perceive information. What people hear, see, smell, taste and touch (including with the help of some instruments) is a kind of perception of information, and people process, process, analyze, transmit, store and reuse the perceived information.
It is precisely because information has the nature of knowledge that it can be transmitted, transformed, processed, stored and retrieved that information can be fully utilized and is of great significance to human beings.
2. 1.3 nature of information
2. 1.3. 1 universality and infinity
Information is ubiquitous in all fields of nature and human society. As long as things exist, change and differ, there will be information. Information is the state and way of things moving. There is no absolute vacuum or absolute static thing in the universe, which means that information is everywhere in the universe. At the same time, things in the universe are infinitely diverse, and in the infinite long river of time, the development and changes of things are even more infinite, so the information is also infinite. There is information in the past, present and future. In the objective world, there is not only information that we already know and master, but also a lot of information that we have not yet known and mastered.
2. 1.3.2 Transitivity and * * * Pleasure
Information can be transmitted in both space and time. The transmission of information in space is called communication; The transmission of information in time is called information storage. The transmission of information is different from the transmission of matter and energy. When matter and energy are transported, the amount of matter or energy emitted from the source will decrease. They obey the law of conservation of mass or energy. Information transmission is different. After a source sends out information, its own information quantity does not decrease, and the same source can supply multiple information recipients. This is another important feature of information, also known as the enjoyment of information.
2. 1.3.3 Convertibility of vectors
Information is the state and way of things' movement, not the things themselves. Therefore, on the one hand, it can only be expressed by some symbols, and these symbols must be recorded on some objects; On the other hand, the carrier of the same information can be changed. For example, some information can be expressed by language symbols, which can be Chinese, English or other languages; These languages can be loaded with sound waves and electromagnetic waves, and can also be converted into corresponding words and loaded on paper. Without these concrete symbols and their material carriers, information and its dissemination are unimaginable, and the transformation between information carrier and information itself constitutes the main content of information processing.
2. 1.3.4 information persistence
In the objective world, some species will disappear and some energy will be exhausted, but information will not disappear and will not be exhausted.
In addition to the above characteristics, information has some other characteristics, such as: organization, which first refers to order and can be arranged in a certain order; Secondly, the pertinence and specificity of information transmission and use; Services, information can be used for information services such as forecasting, investigation and research, consultation and suggestions, and economic evaluation; Recognizable, human beings can perceive information, accept information and identify information; Processability, people can organize, process, sort out and analyze different forms of information; Measurability, information can be measured by eliminating uncertainty.
2. 1.4 information classification
According to observation process, information can be divided into objective information and subjective information. Objective information is divided into initial information, effect information after observer intervention, environmental information and other information; Subjective information is divided into decision information, instruction information, control information, target information and other information.
According to the sequence of information generation and the depth of processing, information can be divided into primary information, secondary information and tertiary information.
According to the direction of information transmission, information can be divided into feedforward information and feedback information.
According to the way of information circulation, information can be divided into public information, internal information and confidential information.
According to different information carriers, information can be divided into printed information, microform information, machine-readable information and audio-visual information.
According to the nature of information sources, information can be divided into voice information, image information, text information, data information and calculation information.
According to its function, information can be divided into useful information, useless information and interference information.
From the perspective of management organization, information can be divided into system information and non-system information.
Based on the information reflection surface, information can be divided into macro information and micro information.
Based on time information, information can be divided into historical information, instant information and future information.
According to information characteristics, information can be divided into qualitative information and quantitative information.
According to information application departments, information can be divided into industrial information, agricultural information, military information, political information, scientific and technological information, economic information, cultural information, market information and management information.
According to the information carried by signals, information can be divided into continuous information, discrete information and semi-continuous information.
Based on philosophy, information can be divided into self-information, self-information, regenerative information, material information and social information.