Chapter 2
The Concept & Description
of Information
Principles of Information Science
Problems To Be Concerned With
1,How should we define the concept of Information?
2,What are the typical features of Information compared
with matter and energy?
3,What are the relationship and difference between
Shannon Information and Comprehensive Information?
4,How to reasonably classify Information?
5,How to properly represent Information?
2-1 Definitions of Information
Some of the existing definitions
N,Wiener,Neither matter,nor energy,
C,Shannon,Something that can be used to remove
uncertainty,
R,Ashby,The variety of a set,
L,Bertalanffy,The complexity of a system,
G,Longo,The difference among things,
Dictionary,The message unknown before,
Information
Signal / Media
Message
Data
Knowledge
Some Interrelated and Easily Confused Concepts
Code
Our Understanding of Information
Constraints Levels Applicability
None Highest Widest
Second Highest Least Second Widest
More Lower Narrower
The Most The Lowest The Narrowest
Our Understanding of Information (Continued)
Constraints Levels Applicability
None Ontology Widest
Epistemology Subject Subject World
Definition of Ontological Information
The ontological information about an event is the
self-description concerning
-- the states at which the event exists and
-- the way with which the states vary,
S1 SN Sn
1) the event,either in real world or in mind,
3) the variation,motion in any sense,
The popularity and completeness of the definition,
2) the state,internal structure and external linkage,
Definition of Epistemological Information
The epistemological information about an object
possessed by a subject is what he perceived/mediated
concerning
the form,the content,and the value of the
states-ways of the object
States/
Ways Object Subject
Form
Content Value
Semantic
Syntactic
Pragmatic
Comprehensive Information
Integrative
Semantic
Integrative
Pragmatic
Pragmatic
Semantic
Syntactic
Comprehensive Information,an trinity of
syntactic,semantic,and pragmatic information,
2-2 The Classification of Information
Observation,a priori,a posteriori
Position,Objective,Subjective
Role,Useful,Useless,Harmful
Logic,True,False
Area,Industrial,Agricultural,Economic,Social,..,
Medium Source,Voice,Image,Data,Text,..,
Carrier,Electronic,Optic,Biologic,..,
Form,Discrete,Continuous,..,
… …
Classification of Information (Continued)
Deterministic
Semi-random
Random
Clear
Fuzzy
Finite
Discrete
Syntactic
Semantic
Pragmatic
Deterministic
Continuous
Infinite
3·8·3=72 Categories
Shannon Information
2-3 Description on Information
Key Points in Information Description
The state and the way of state varying,
are the key points for information description,
Table,Curve,Graph,Tree,State Space,Network,
and Differential Equations,etc.,are possibly used for
the description of information,
Descriptive Parameters
State,x
Membership,m -- Fuzzy
Probability,p -- Random
Possibility,q -- Semi- Way,c
Syntactic
Semantic
Pragmatic
Numbering,x
Logic Truth,t
Utility,u
n
n
n
n
n
n
x … x … x
c … c … c
t … t … t
u … u … u
1 N
1
1
1 N
N
n
n
n
n
N
c =
n
n
n
n
p
q
m
x is random
x is semi-random
x is fuzzy {
The descriptive matrix,
0 ? ? ? 1,for all n; ? ? ? 1
n
0 ? p ? 1,for all n; ?p = 1
0 ? q ? 1,for all n; ?q = 1
n
n n
n n
n
n
n
0 ? t ? 1,for all n; ? t ? 1
0 ? u ? 1,for all n; ? u ? 1
n n
n n
Probability
Possibility
Grade of
Membership
Truth Degree
Utility
t n = {
1,True
0,False
0 < a < 1,Indefinite
u n = {
1,Maximum Utility
0,Minimum Utility
0 < b < 1,Unclear
2-4 Philosophical Issues of Information
1) Information,matter,or spirit?
2) Information - Knowledge - Intelligence
3) Man and Intelligent Information System,
Who is going to govern?
Problems Have Been Concerned With
1,How would you give a definition to Information?
2,What are the typical features of Information compared
with matter and energy?
3,What are the relationship and difference between
Shannon Information and Comprehensive Information?
4,How to reasonably classify Information?
5,How to properly represent Information?