Session 8a :: Shannon & Information Theory

What Is Representation

What is a representation ?

portrait of Ada King, countess of Lovelace (cca 1840)

What Is Information

What is information ?

Can Machines Think

17th January
Question of the day: Can machines think ?
Topic: Hommage to A.M.T.
Hero of the day: Alan Matthison Turing

Can Machines Understand

24th January
Question of the day: Can machines understand ?
Topic: Programming languages and operating systems
Heroes: von Neumann, Ritchie & Thomson, Tanenbaum, Gates, Torvalds

Can Machines Evolve

31th January
Question of the day: Can machines evolve ?
Topic: Internet and the emergence of planetary A.I.
Heroes: Snowden, Nakamoto, hacker community

Can Machines See

7th February
Question of the day: Can machines see ?
Topic of the day: Embedded systems and digital artefacts
Hero of the day: Limor Fried

The Congress

14th February

The Futurological Congress AE1000000

What Is Not Information

What is information ?
What is NOT information ?

Etymology Information

Etymology of the word "to inform"

early 14c., "to train or instruct in some specific subject," from Old French informer, enformer "instruct, teach" (13c.) and directly from Latin informare "to shape, give form to, delineate," figuratively "train, instruct, educate," from in- "into" (from PIE root *en "in") + formare "to form, shape," from forma "form". Sense of "communicate facts or news" first recorded late 14c.

Source: https://www.etymonline.com/word/inform

Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001)

mathematician, electrical engineer, cryptographer, juggler & unicycler
"father of information theory"
(1937) A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits
(1948) A Mathematical Theory of Communication
inventor of the "Ultimate Machine"

Ultimate Machine

Intro to information theory

Communication System

Dikw Pyramid

Longlivetheux https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DIKW_Pyramid.svg, CC BY-SA 4.0