Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on March 03, 1998 at 20:49:58:

In Reply to: Information Theory posted by Ross Hall on March 03, 1998 at 14:49:59:

From:

Wiener, N. (1954). The Human Use of Human Beings, Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.

Information is a name for the content of what is exchanged with the outer world as we adjust to it, and make our adjustment felt upon it. The process or receiving and of using information is the process of our adjusting to the contingencies of the outer environment, and of our living effectively within the environment (p. 27). Leibnitz, dominated by ideas of communication, is, in more than one way, the intellectual ancestor of the ideas of this book. My views in this book are very far from being Leibnitzian, but the problems with I am concerned are certainly Leibnitzian.

Just as the entropy is a measure of disorganization, the information carried by a set of messages is a measure of organization. In fact, it is possible to interpret the information carried by a message as essentially the negative of entropy, and the negative logarithm of its probability. That is, the more probable the message, the less information it gives. Cliches, for example, are less illuminating than great poems.

The control of the machine on the basis of its actual performance rather than its expected performance is known as feedback: the possibility of being able to adjust future conduct by past performance. If these results are merely used as numerical data for the criticism of the system and its regulation, we have the simple feedback of control engineers. If, however, the information which proceeds backward from the performance is able to change the general method and pattern of performance, we have a process which may be called learning.

Cybernetics takes the view that the structure of the machine or of the organism is an index of the performance that may be expected from it.

Central Ideas of Human Use of Human Beings: The central ideas of the book relate to three issues: entropy, feedback and information.

The degree of [dis]organization of a system can be assessed in terms of the measure of probability called entropy. Wiener discusses how both living organisms (including human beings) and machines constitute local pockets of decreasing entropy - i.e., greater orderliness - in a universal framework in which, in general, entropy is assumed to be on the increase. Wiener points out how the scientist's quest of discovering order in the universe is hampered by a devil which may be interpreted as either the absence of order or a force contrary to order.

Learning involves feedback (internal to the same person or between the persons), according to Wiener, which consists of modifying the behavior of a system by reinserting the results of actual and (not just expected) past performance. Feedback can refer to the success or failure of a simple act or it may occur at a higher level when information of a whole policy of conduct or pattern of behavior is fed back, enabling the organism to change its strategic planning of further action...As long as we are able to formulate the parameters or variables with respect to which information we want to be fed back, there is no limit to the extent to which our society can improve its functioning by learning from the consequences of its previous behavior.

The third central idea - that of information - in contrast to entropy and feedback, means different things to different people. What should be clear, however, is that the "commodity" that circulates in a communication system, no matter what its physical form, is information. Our adjustment to the world around us depends upon the informational windows that our senses provide. Our culture depends upon the relevant use of the vast stores of information that we have accumulated, and in a real sense access to specialized information is a form of feedback that may be equivalent to the advantages of economic, political, or military power.

The general point is that scientists must know what man's nature is and what his built-in purposes are if we are to live successfully in an increasingly man-made world. Repeatedly Weiner emphasizes that machines as such do not endanger society but that it is rather what man makes of them that is the source of danger. [Compare with current working paper on Role of Organizational Control in Organizational Knowledge Creation (Malhotra 1996) - IT is as such neutral]. He suggests that we not become slaves to technological "know-how" without accompanying it by an appropriate "know what," i.e., by a clear understanding of what our purposes are and how we can best accomplish them. Weiner concludes with his personal credo: "Science is a way of life which can only flourish when men are free to have faith." But, he adds, faith imposed by orders from outside is no faith.

• Yogesh Malhotra

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Information Theory... Continued Yogesh Malhotra 21:12:02 3/03/98 (10)
  • Thought on readings Tom Sudman 10:55:38 3/05/98 (9)
    • Re: Data, Information & Knowledge Yogesh Malhotra 10:44:57 3/07/98 (8)
      • Re: Data, Information & Knowledge Craig Maudlin 20:59:36 3/10/98 (7)
        • Re: Data, Information & Knowledge Ross Hall 13:20:39 3/11/98 (6)
          • Re: Data, Information & Knowledge Craig Maudlin 18:39:00 3/11/98 (5)
            • Re: Difficulties with Information Theory Yogesh Malhotra 23:15:05 3/11/98 (4)
              • Re: Difficulties with Information Theory Craig Maudlin 19:18:03 3/12/98 (3)
                • Re: Difficulties with Information Theory Tom Sudman 14:23:17 3/16/98 (0)
                • Re: Difficulties with Information Theory Mezei 22:27:13 3/12/98 (1)
                  • Re: Difficulties with Information Theory Martyn R Jones 08:26:34 3/25/98 (0)
• Re: More on Information Theory... Yogesh Malhotra 21:06:52 3/03/98 (0)

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