in origins of governance
Shannon’s diagram of, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
as stochastic process
symbolic logic to describe systems of
system elements, 7.1, 7.2
in Twitter, epl.1, epl.2
see also talking drums; telegraphy; telephony; transmission of information
compact disc, prl.1, 8.1, epl.1
complexity, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9
compression of information; see data compression
“Computable Numbers, On” (Turing), 7.1, 7.2, 12.1
computation
in Babylonian mathematics, 2.1, 2.2
computable and uncomputable numbers, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
of differential equations, 4.1, 4.2
in evolution of complex structures
human computers, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
thermodynamics of, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
Turing machine for, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6
see also calculators; computers
computer(s)
analog and digital, 8.1, 8.2
chess-playing, 8.1, 8.2
comparison to humans, 8.1, 8.2
cost of memory storage
cost of work of, 13.1, 13.2
early mechanical, prl.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 8.1
growth of memory and processing speed of, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4
inductive learning in
perception of thinking by, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
public awareness of
quantum-based, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
Shannon’s information theory in, prl.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2
significance of information theory in development of
spread of memes through
Turing’s conceptualization of, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
universe as, 14.1, 14.2
see also calculators; computation; programming
Conference on Cybernetics, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12
Connolly, Sean J.
consciousness, 2.1, 2.2, 8.1, 8.2, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
continuous signal systems, 6.1, 7.1
Cooke, William, 5.1, 5.2
Cooper, Pat
Coote, Edmund
Coy, George W.
Crick, Francis, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5
Crow, James F. n
cryptography
assessment of system security
Babbage’s work in, 5.1, 5.2
early strategies, 5.1, 5.2
Enigma system of, 7.1, 7.2
information theory and
mathematics of, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1, 7.2
mental skill for
pattern recognition in, 7.1, 7.2
perfect cipher system
popular interest in, 5.1, 5.2
quantum, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
RSA encryption
Shannon’s work on, prl.1, prl.2, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6
Turing’s work on, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
voice encryption, 7.1, 7.2
writing and, 5.1, 5.2
see also code
crystals, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1
culture
communication technology and, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
communicative capacity of drums, 1.1, 1.2
function of meme
perceptions changed by telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2
replication and transmission of
thought processes biased by, 2.1, 2.2
see also oral culture
Cummings, E. E., 6.1, 8.1
cuneiform, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7
Cunningham, Michael
cybernetics, prl.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 12.1, 12.2
Cybernetics (Wiener), 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1
cyberspace, 13.1, epl.1
capacity for transmitting information, 3.1, 3.2
concepts of literacy and orality in
connectivity in, epl.1, epl.2
naming issues, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3
online version of Oxford English Dictionary, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
paradox of distance in
see also Internet
Daguerre, Louis
Dancoff, Sidney
Darwin, Charles, 4.1, 10.1
data compression, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, 5.1, 5.2, 8.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
Davy, Edward, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2
Dawkins, Richard, prl.1, prl.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7
de Back, James
decision problem, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
definitions of words
interlocking and circular nature of, 3.1, 3.2
in perfect language
scientific progress and, prl.1, prl.2, 3.1, 3.2
see also dictionaries
Delbrück, Max, 10.1, 10.2
Deletionpedia, 14.1, 14.2
Democritus
De Morgan, Augustus, 4.1, 5.1, 15.1
Dennett, Daniel, 10.1, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 15.1, 15.2
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), prl.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7
diamond code, 10.1, 10.2
Dibdin, Charles
Dickens, Charles, 4.1n, 14.1
dictionaries, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, 3.13; see also Oxford English Dictionary
Dictionarium (Thomas)
Diderot, Denis, 14.1, epl.1
Difference Engine, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10, 4.11, 4.12, 4.13, 4.14, 4.15, 6.1
Differential Analyzer, prl.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 8.1
Differential and Integral Calculus (Lacroix)
differential equations, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
“Digital Computers Called Brains, Of” (McCulloch)
digital technology, 6.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 12.1
Diringer, David
discrete information, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 12.1
D’Israeli, Isaac
Disreali, Benjamin
distortion of signal; see noise
DNA; see deoxyribonucleic acid
“Does One Sometimes Know Too Much?,” 15.1
domain names, 14.1, 14.2
Donne, John
Doob, Joseph L.
Dowd, Maureen
Doyle, Arthur Conan
Dretske, Fred, 11.1, epl.1, ind.1
drums; see talking drums
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
Dyer, Harrison Gray
echo
Eckart, Carl
Eckert, W. H.
economics
Babbage’s research on, 4.1, 4.2
business of telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5
commercial interest in telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2
commercial interest in telephony, 6.1, 6.2
cost of computation, 13.1, 13.2
costs of computer memory
in information cloud
as information science
of number table production, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
origins of mathematics and
Edison, Thomas A., 5.1, 12.1
Edwards, Mary
Egypt, 3.1, 3.2
Einstein, Albert, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 9.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
Eisenstein, Elizabeth, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
electrical circuits
development of telegraphy, 1.1, 1.2
noise in, 6.1, 7.1
symbolic logic and, prl.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5
transmission capacity of, 6.1, 6.2
electricity
amplitude modulation, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
biological analogies for
evolution of scientific understanding of, 5.1, 5.2
in measurement of communication
public response to new technologies of
recognition of communication potential of, 5.1, 5.2
source of noise in
technical demands of telephony, 6.1, 6.2
see also electri
cal circuits; telegraphy
Electric Telegraph Company, 5.1, 5.2
Elements of Electro-Biology (Smee)
Elias, Peter, 8.1, 8.2
Eliot, T. S., 3.1, 15.1
Elyot, Thomas
e-mail, 2.1, 11.1, 11.2, 14.1, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 7.1, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, epl.1
encyclopedias, prl.1, epl.1, epl.2; see also specific encyclopedia
Encyclopédie, 14.1
Enderton, Herbert
energy
in concept of entropy, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
cost of information processing, 13.1, 13.2
information and, prl.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 13.1
Maxwell’s demon, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.1, 13.1, 13.2, 15.1, epl.1
perpetual motion machine, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
in physics of black holes
see also thermodynamics
England, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 8.1, 8.2; see also English language
English Expositour, An (Bullokar)
English language
earliest dictionaries, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11
evolution of, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
growth of, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
number of speakers of, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
Oxford English Dictionary of, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11
phonemes of, 1.1, 1.2
redundancy in, 1.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2
spelling of words in, 3.1, 3.2
statistical analysis, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
use of tonality in
vocabulary size
English Schoolemaister, The (Coote)
ENIAC
Enigma code, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
entanglement, prl.1, 1.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5
entelechy
entropy, prl.1, 8.1
concept of mind and
definition of, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
as disorder
dissipation of energy in, 9.1, 9.2
information as, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1, 12.2
information to reduce, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7
of language
mathematical complexity and
Maxwell’s demon, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.1, 13.1, 13.2, 15.1, epl.1
measurement of
as measure of uncertainty, 9.1, 9.2
movement of universe toward, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
orderliness of biological life and, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
randomness and
in thermodynamics of computation
Entscheidungsproblem, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
enzymes, 9.1, 10.1, 10.2
Ephrussi, Boris
Epimenides’ paradox
epistemology
erasure of information, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 14.1
error correction
applications of Shannon’s theories
in artillery targeting
in early telegraphic code systems, 5.1, 5.2
in genetic code
to overcome noise, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1
redundancy for, 7.1, 7.2
in talking drum language
in telegraphy
errors, in logarithmic tables, 4.1, 4.2
Erya, 3.1
evolution
as computational process
emergence of global consciousness as
gene interactions and, 10.1, 10.2
of genes, 10.1, 10.2
of ideas
information processing in
role of altruistic behavior in, 10.1, 10.2
evolutionary biology, 10.1, 11.1
Ex-Prodigy (Wiener)
Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series (Wiener, Bigelow)
factoring algorithm, 13.1, 13.2
Fano, Robert, 7.1, 7.2, 12.1
Faraday, Michael, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2
feedback, 5.1, 6.1, 8.1, 8.2, 10.1
Feynman, Richard, 9.1, 10.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4
file storage technology
fire beacons
fire-control; see antiaircraft guns and artillery
FitzRoy, Robert, 5.1, 5.2
Ford, Joseph, 12.1, 12.2
Formal Logic (De Morgan)
Foundations of the Theory of Probability (Kolmogorov)
Four Great Books of Song, epl.1
France, 3.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8
Frank, Lawrence K., 8.1, 8.2
Franklin, Benjamin
Freeman, Thomas, 15.1, 15.2
Freud, Sigmund, 8.1, 9.1
Frost, Robert
Fry, Thornton C., 6.1, 6.2
Fuchs, Christopher, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3
Fuchs, Ulrich
Gabor, Dennis
Galileo, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1
galvanometer, 5.1, 5.2
games, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6
game theory
Gamow, George, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5
Gauss, Carl Friedrich
General Electric
genetics
altruistic behavior and, 10.1, 10.2
aperiodic crystal model of, 9.1, 10.1
coding system, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10
development of scientific concepts of, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5
discovery of DNA, 10.1, 10.2
gene structure and function, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, 10.14
genome mapping
as information science, prl.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7
information storage in, 7.1, 7.2
memetics and
Schrödinger’s formulation of, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3
selfish gene concept, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 11.1
symbolic logic to describe, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Gerard, Ralph, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
Gibbs, Willard
Gibson, William
Gilgamesh
Gilliver, Peter, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3
Glossographia: or a Dictionary (Blount), 3.1, 3.2
Gödel, Kurt, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, epl.1
Gödel’s Proof (Nagel, Newman)
Godfather (film)
“Gold Bug, The” (Poe)
Gongsun Long
Google, 11.1, 14.1, 14.2, 15.1, epl.1, epl.2
Gould, Glenn, 12.1, 12.2
Gould, Stephen Jay
gravity, 13.1, 13.2, 14.1
Gray, Elisha
Great Exhibition of 1851 (London)
Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 12.1
Greece, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6
Grover, Lov
Guare, John, epl.1, epl.2
Gutenberg Galaxy (McLuhan)
Guyot, Jules
Hamilton, W. D., 11.1, 11.2
Hammurabi
Hardy, G. H.
Hardy-Ramanujan number
Hart, Sarah
Hartley, Ralph, 1.1, 1.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1
Harvard University, 8.1, 8.2, 9.1
Hatto, Joyce
Havelock, Eric, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Hawking, Stephen, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
heat, 8.1, 13.1, 13.2; see also thermodynamics
Hein, Jon
Heisenberg, Werner, 7.1, 12.1, 13.1
Hennig, Richard
Henry, Joseph
Herschel, John, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
hieroglyphics, 2.1, 8.1
Hilbert, David, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
Hobbes, Thomas, prl.1, 2.1
Hofstadter, Douglas R., 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4
Holland, Owen
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
holography
Homeric epics, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 11.1
Huffman, David
Huffman coding
 
; Humphrey, Nicholas
Husbands, Philip
Husson, M.
I Am a Mathematician (Wiener)
iatroepidemics
IBM, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 14.1, 14.2
ideas, compared to biosphere, 11.1, 11.2; see also memes
idiographic writing
Iliad (Homer)
images
compressibility of
memes as
recording of, 14.1, 14.2
imagination, 2.1n, 4.1, 4.2, 7.1
Imitation Game (Turing), 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
incompleteness theorem
algorithmic proof of randomness and, 12.1, 12.2
chaos theory and, 12.1, 12.2
decision problem and, 7.1, 7.2
proof of, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
significance of, 6.1, 6.2
Turing machine and
indexes, 15.1, 15.2, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
inductive reasoning
Infinities, The (Banville)
“Information Is Inevitably Physical” (Landauer)
“Information Is Physical” (Landauer)
information overload
in Borges’s “Library of Babel,” 14.1
e-mail and, 15.1, 15.2
filter and search strategies to prevent, 15.1, 15.2
historical fears of, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
human–computer comparison of effects of
knowledge and, 15.1, 15.2
manifestations of, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
meaning and, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3, epl.4
psychological studies of, 15.1, 15.2
technological progress and, prl.1, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4
information theory
attempts to add semantic counterpart to
on control of redundancy in messages, 7.1, 7.2
cryptography and
development in England, 8.1, 8.2
diagram of communication in, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
genetic science and, prl.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7
language as possibility in, epl.1, epl.2
measurement of information in, 7.1, 7.2
message value in, 12.1-3.1
noise source in, 7.1, 7.2
origins of, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, prl.4, 7.1; see also Mathematical Theory of Communication, The (Shannon, Weaver)
physics and, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3
place of meaning in, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, epl.1, epl.2
response of wider scientific community to, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9
response to Shannon’s initial publication, 8.1, 8.2
significance of, prl.1, prl.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
in Soviet Union, 12.1, 12.2
system states in
theories of psychology and, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7
see also quantum information science
Internet, 11.1, 11.2, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
It from Bit (Wheeler), prl.1, 13.1
Jacobson, Homer
Jacquard, Joseph-Marie
Jacquard loom, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 12.1
James, William, 8.1, 8.2
János, Neumann; see John von Neumann
Jaynes, Julian, 2.1, 2.2