99-504: Kennisnet (translated from Dutch as Knowledge Net , previously Kennisnet Ict op school ) is a Dutch public (semi-governmental) organization dedicated to ICT-innovation for primary and secondary education and vocational training. Kennisnet provides educational content and information to teachers, pupils and parents. Kennisnet also stimulates the use of information technology in educational processes by providing technical and practical support for several innovative educational aids. Kennisnet
198-510: A glittering generality . Some will think they oppose taxes in general because they hinder economic growth. Others may think they oppose only those taxes that they believe will hinder economic growth. In writing, the sentence can be rewritten to reduce possible misinterpretation, either by adding a comma after "taxes" (to convey the first sense) or by changing "which" to "that" (to convey the second sense) or by rewriting it in other ways. The devious politician hopes that each constituent will interpret
297-574: A knowledge worker in performing research and making decisions, including steps such as: Stewart (2001) argues that transformation of information into knowledge is critical, lying at the core of value creation and competitive advantage for the modern enterprise. In a biological framework, Mizraji has described information as an entity emerging from the interaction of patterns with receptor systems (eg: in molecular or neural receptors capable of interacting with specific patterns, information emerges from those interactions). In addition, he has incorporated
396-447: A binary machine register where a decimal interpretation makes no practical sense. Subsequently, the Ki, Mi, and Gi prefixes were introduced so that binary prefixes could be written explicitly, also rendering k, M, and G unambiguous in texts conforming to the new standard—this led to a new ambiguity in engineering documents lacking outward trace of the binary prefixes (necessarily indicating
495-452: A choice between a finite number of known and meaningful context -dependent interpretations. The latter represents a choice between any number of possible interpretations, none of which may have a standard agreed-upon meaning. This form of ambiguity is closely related to vagueness . Ambiguity in human language is argued to reflect principles of efficient communication. Languages that communicate efficiently will avoid sending information that
594-435: A function must exist, even if it is not accessible for humans; A view surmised by Albert Einstein with the assertion that " God does not play dice ". Modern astronomy cites the mechanical sense of information in the black hole information paradox , positing that, because the complete evaporation of a black hole into Hawking radiation leaves nothing except an expanding cloud of homogeneous particles, this results in
693-420: A function; square brackets are not allowed for grouping of expressions. Fortran, in addition, does not allow use of the same name (identifier) for different objects, for example, function and variable; in particular, the expression f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} is qualified as an error. The order of operations may depend on the context. In most programming languages ,
792-439: A good hammer ), "exemplary" ( She's a good student ), "pleasing" ( This is good soup ), "moral" ( a good person versus the lesson to be learned from a story ), " righteous ", etc. "I have a good daughter" is not clear about which sense is intended. The various ways to apply prefixes and suffixes can also create ambiguity ("unlockable" can mean "capable of being opened" or "impossible to lock"). Semantic ambiguity occurs when
891-448: A greater technical precision over big natural languages, although historically, such attempts at language improvement have been criticized. Languages composed from many diverse sources contain much ambiguity and inconsistency. The many exceptions to syntax and semantic rules are time-consuming and difficult to learn. In structural biology , ambiguity has been recognized as a problem for studying protein conformations . The analysis of
990-456: A more continuous form. Information is not knowledge itself, but the meaning that may be derived from a representation through interpretation. The concept of information is relevant or connected to various concepts, including constraint , communication , control , data , form , education , knowledge , meaning , understanding , mental stimuli , pattern , perception , proposition , representation , and entropy . Information
1089-434: A nutritional function. The cognitive scientist and applied mathematician Ronaldo Vigo argues that information is a concept that requires at least two related entities to make quantitative sense. These are, any dimensionally defined category of objects S, and any of its subsets R. R, in essence, is a representation of S, or, in other words, conveys representational (and hence, conceptual) information about S. Vigo then defines
SECTION 10
#17328456802441188-553: A posed question. Whether the answer provides knowledge depends on the informed person. So a generalized definition of the concept should be: "Information" = An answer to a specific question". When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures, he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets. Also, pheromones are often said to be "information" in this sense. These sections are using measurements of data rather than information, as information cannot be directly measured. It
1287-455: A priori validation or certainty. Like the existentialists and phenomenologists, he sees the ambiguity of life as the basis of creativity. In literature and rhetoric, ambiguity can be a useful tool. Groucho Marx's classic joke depends on a grammatical ambiguity for its humor, for example: "Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know". Songs and poetry often rely on ambiguous words for artistic effect, as in
1386-432: A protein three-dimensional structure consists in dividing the macromolecule into subunits called domains . The difficulty of this task arises from the fact that different definitions of what a domain is can be used (e.g. folding autonomy, function, thermodynamic stability, or domain motions), which sometimes results in a single protein having different—yet equally valid—domain assignments. Christianity and Judaism employ
1485-411: A sentence like "He ate the cookies on the couch" is also semantically ambiguous. Rarely, but occasionally, the different parsings of a syntactically ambiguous phrase result in the same meaning. For example, the command "Cook, cook!" can be parsed as "Cook (noun used as vocative ), cook (imperative verb form)!", but also as "Cook (imperative verb form), cook (noun used as vocative)!". It is more common that
1584-435: A syntactically unambiguous phrase has a semantic ambiguity; for example, the lexical ambiguity in "Your boss is a funny man" is purely semantic, leading to the response "Funny ha-ha or funny peculiar?" Spoken language can contain many more types of ambiguities that are called phonological ambiguities, where there is more than one way to compose a set of sounds into words. For example, "ice cream" and "I scream". Such ambiguity
1683-398: A type of input to an organism or system . Inputs are of two kinds; some inputs are important to the function of the organism (for example, food) or system ( energy ) by themselves. In his book Sensory Ecology biophysicist David B. Dusenbery called these causal inputs. Other inputs (information) are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict
1782-418: A voucher. Only rewriting the sentence, or placing appropriate punctuation can resolve a syntactic ambiguity. For the notion of, and theoretic results about, syntactic ambiguity in artificial, formal languages (such as computer programming languages ), see Ambiguous grammar . Usually, semantic and syntactic ambiguity go hand in hand. The sentence "We saw her duck" is also syntactically ambiguous. Conversely,
1881-432: A word or phrase applies to it having more than one meaning in the language to which the word belongs. "Meaning" here refers to whatever should be represented by a good dictionary. For instance, the word "bank" has several distinct lexical definitions, including " financial institution " and " edge of a river ". Or consider " apothecary ". One could say "I bought herbs from the apothecary". This could mean one actually spoke to
1980-422: A word, phrase or sentence, taken out of context, has more than one interpretation. In "We saw her duck" (example due to Richard Nordquist), the words "her duck" can refer either Syntactic ambiguity arises when a sentence can have two (or more) different meanings because of the structure of the sentence—its syntax. This is often due to a modifying expression, such as a prepositional phrase, the application of which
2079-901: Is entropy . Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process . For example, identifying the outcome of a fair coin flip (with two equally likely outcomes) provides less information (lower entropy) than specifying the outcome from a roll of a die (with six equally likely outcomes). Some other important measures in information theory are mutual information , channel capacity, error exponents , and relative entropy . Important sub-fields of information theory include source coding , algorithmic complexity theory , algorithmic information theory , and information-theoretic security . Applications of fundamental topics of information theory include source coding/ data compression (e.g. for ZIP files ), and channel coding/ error detection and correction (e.g. for DSL ). Its impact has been crucial to
SECTION 20
#17328456802442178-434: Is a major concept in both classical physics and quantum mechanics , encompassing the ability, real or theoretical, of an agent to predict the future state of a system based on knowledge gathered during its past and present. Determinism is a philosophical theory holding that causal determination can predict all future events, positing a fully predictable universe described by classical physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace as "
2277-504: Is a set that the sender and receiver of information must know before exchanging information. Digital information, for example, consists of building blocks that are all number sequences. Each number sequence represents a selection from its domain. The sender and receiver of digital information (number sequences) must know the domain and binary format of each number sequence before exchanging information. By defining number sequences online, this would be systematically and universally usable. Before
2376-435: Is also potentially ambiguous notation. For example, in the notation T m n k {\displaystyle T_{mnk}} , the reader can only infer from the context whether it means a single-index object, taken with the subscript equal to product of variables m {\displaystyle m} , n {\displaystyle n} and k {\displaystyle k} , or it
2475-420: Is always conveyed as the content of a message. Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation (for example, information may be encoded into a sequence of signs , or transmitted via a signal ). It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication. The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence. Uncertainty is inversely proportional to
2574-606: Is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform . At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally ) of that which may be sensed , or their abstractions . Any natural process that is not completely random and any observable pattern in any medium can be said to convey some amount of information. Whereas digital signals and other data use discrete signs to convey information, other phenomena and artifacts such as analogue signals , poems , pictures , music or other sounds , and currents convey information in
2673-570: Is an "unwritten rule": the state is coherent if there are more Greek characters than Latin characters in the argument, and n {\displaystyle n} -photon state if the Latin characters dominate. The ambiguity becomes even worse, if | x ⟩ {\displaystyle ~|x\rangle ~} is used for the states with certain value of the coordinate, and | p ⟩ {\displaystyle ~|p\rangle ~} means
2772-498: Is an indication to a trivalent tensor . An expression such as sin 2 α / 2 {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}\alpha /2} can be understood to mean either ( sin ( α / 2 ) ) 2 {\displaystyle (\sin(\alpha /2))^{2}} or ( sin α ) 2 / 2 {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{2}/2} . Often
2871-532: Is an uncountable mass noun . Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification , storage , and communication of information. The field itself was fundamentally established by the work of Claude Shannon in the 1940s, with earlier contributions by Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley in the 1920s. The field is at the intersection of probability theory , statistics , computer science, statistical mechanics , information engineering , and electrical engineering . A key measure in information theory
2970-523: Is analogous to visual ambiguity and impossible objects , such as the Necker cube and impossible cube, or many of the drawings of M. C. Escher . Some languages have been created with the intention of avoiding ambiguity, especially lexical ambiguity . Lojban and Loglan are two related languages that have been created for this, focusing chiefly on syntactic ambiguity as well. The languages can be both spoken and written. These languages are intended to provide
3069-760: Is common practice to omit multiplication signs in mathematical expressions. Also, it is common to give the same name to a variable and a function, for example, f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} . Then, if one sees f = f ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle f=f(y+1)} , there is no way to distinguish whether it means f = f ( x ) {\displaystyle f=f(x)} multiplied by ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle (y+1)} , or function f {\displaystyle f} evaluated at argument equal to ( y + 1 ) {\displaystyle (y+1)} . In each case of use of such notations,
Kennisnet - Misplaced Pages Continue
3168-472: Is estimated that the world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 1986 – which is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-MB CD-ROM per person (539 MB per person) – to 295 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2007. This is the informational equivalent of almost 61 CD-ROM per person in 2007. The world's combined technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks
3267-416: Is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 64.2 zettabytes in 2020. Over the next five years up to 2025, global data creation is projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes. Records are specialized forms of information. Essentially, records are information produced consciously or as by-products of business activities or transactions and retained because of their value. Primarily, their value is as evidence of
3366-656: Is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science . Kennisnet provided hosting and bandwidth for fifty Wikimedia Foundation servers from June 2005 to 2009, located at SARA in the Science Park Amsterdam . Davindi was a search engine for searching the open source Kennisnet database. The name is a pun on Leonardo da Vinci 's surname and the Dutch word vind which means find in English. It did not crawl
3465-483: Is generally resolved according to the context. A mishearing of such, based on incorrectly resolved ambiguity, is called a mondegreen . Philosophers (and other users of logic) spend a lot of time and effort searching for and removing (or intentionally adding) ambiguity in arguments because it can lead to incorrect conclusions and can be used to deliberately conceal bad arguments. For example, a politician might say, "I oppose taxes which hinder economic growth", an example of
3564-451: Is log 2 (4/1) = 2 bits. A 2011 Science article estimates that 97% of technologically stored information was already in digital bits in 2007 and that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage (with digital storage capacity bypassing analogue for the first time). Information can be defined exactly by set theory: "Information is a selection from the domain of information". The "domain of information"
3663-422: Is mainly (but not only, e.g. plants can grow in the direction of the light source) a causal input to plants but for animals it only provides information. The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak for photosynthesis but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs,
3762-587: Is much greater tolerance of ambiguity, as it is generally seen as an integral part of the human condition. Martin Heidegger argued that the relation between the subject and object is ambiguous, as is the relation of mind and body, and part and whole. In Heidegger's phenomenology, Dasein is always in a meaningful world, but there is always an underlying background for every instance of signification. Thus, although some things may be certain, they have little to do with Dasein's sense of care and existential anxiety, e.g., in
3861-414: Is often processed iteratively: Data available at one step are processed into information to be interpreted and processed at the next step. For example, in written text each symbol or letter conveys information relevant to the word it is part of, each word conveys information relevant to the phrase it is part of, each phrase conveys information relevant to the sentence it is part of, and so on until at
3960-608: Is often purposely ambiguous. To quote Sir Donald Francis Tovey (1935, p. 195), "Theorists are apt to vex themselves with vain efforts to remove uncertainty just where it has a high aesthetic value." In visual art, certain images are visually ambiguous, such as the Necker cube , which can be interpreted in two ways. Perceptions of such objects remain stable for a time, then may flip, a phenomenon called multistable perception . The opposite of such ambiguous images are impossible objects . Pictures or photographs may also be ambiguous at
4059-438: Is put to use when the business subsequently wants to identify the most popular or least popular dish. Information can be transmitted in time, via data storage , and space, via communication and telecommunication . Information is expressed either as the content of a message or through direct or indirect observation . That which is perceived can be construed as a message in its own right, and in that sense, all information
Kennisnet - Misplaced Pages Continue
4158-423: Is redundant with information provided in the context. This can be shown mathematically to result in a system that is ambiguous when context is neglected. In this way, ambiguity is viewed as a generally useful feature of a linguistic system. Linguistic ambiguity can be a problem in law , because the interpretation of written documents and oral agreements is often of paramount importance. The lexical ambiguity of
4257-447: Is required when translating the formulas to an algorithmic language. In addition, it is common to write an argument of a function without parenthesis, which also may lead to ambiguity. In the scientific journal style, one uses roman letters to denote elementary functions, whereas variables are written using italics. For example, in mathematical journals the expression s i n {\displaystyle sin} does not denote
4356-424: Is separate from or unified with something else: language, he asserts, divides what is not, in fact, separate. Following Ernest Becker , he argues that the desire to 'authoritatively disambiguate' the world and existence has led to numerous ideologies and historical events such as genocide. On this basis, he argues that ethics must focus on 'dialectically integrating opposites' and balancing tension, rather than seeking
4455-573: Is supposed to guess from the context. Some physical quantities do not yet have established notations; their value (and sometimes even dimension , as in the case of the Einstein coefficients ), depends on the system of notations. Many terms are ambiguous. Each use of an ambiguous term should be preceded by the definition, suitable for a specific case. Just like Ludwig Wittgenstein states in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus : "... Only in
4554-458: Is the type of meaning in which a phrase , statement, or resolution is not explicitly defined, making for several interpretations; others describe it as a concept or statement that has no real reference. A common aspect of ambiguity is uncertainty . It is thus an attribute of any idea or statement whose intended meaning cannot be definitively resolved, according to a rule or process with a finite number of steps. (The prefix ambi - reflects
4653-500: Is unclear. "He ate the cookies on the couch", for example, could mean that he ate those cookies that were on the couch (as opposed to those that were on the table), or it could mean that he was sitting on the couch when he ate the cookies. "To get in, you will need an entrance fee of $ 10 or your voucher and your drivers' license." This could mean that you need EITHER ten dollars OR BOTH your voucher and your license. Or it could mean that you need your license AND you need EITHER ten dollars OR
4752-416: The sine function , but the product of the three variables s {\displaystyle s} , i {\displaystyle i} , n {\displaystyle n} , although in the informal notation of a slide presentation it may stand for sin {\displaystyle \sin } . Commas in multi-component subscripts and superscripts are sometimes omitted; this
4851-435: The activities of the organization but they may also be retained for their informational value. Sound records management ensures that the integrity of records is preserved for as long as they are required. The international standard on records management, ISO 15489, defines records as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in
4950-419: The amount of information that R conveys about S as the rate of change in the complexity of S whenever the objects in R are removed from S. Under "Vigo information", pattern, invariance, complexity, representation, and information – five fundamental constructs of universal science – are unified under a novel mathematical framework. Among other things, the framework aims to overcome
5049-494: The apothecary ( pharmacist ) or went to the apothecary ( pharmacy ). The context in which an ambiguous word is used often makes it clearer which of the meanings is intended. If, for instance, someone says "I put $ 100 in the bank", most people would not think someone used a shovel to dig in the mud. However, some linguistic contexts do not provide sufficient information to make a used word clearer. Lexical ambiguity can be addressed by algorithmic methods that automatically associate
SECTION 50
#17328456802445148-409: The appropriate meaning with a word in context, a task referred to as word-sense disambiguation . The use of multi-defined words requires the author or speaker to clarify their context, and sometimes elaborate on their specific intended meaning (in which case, a less ambiguous term should have been used). The goal of clear concise communication is that the receiver(s) have no misunderstanding about what
5247-401: The association between signs and behaviour. Semantics can be considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts – particularly the way that signs relate to human behavior. Syntax is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message. Syntax as an area studies the form of communication in terms of the logic and grammar of sign systems. Syntax is devoted to
5346-1725: The author's intention can be understood from the context, in cases where only one of the two makes sense, but an ambiguity like this should be avoided, for example by writing sin 2 ( α / 2 ) {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}(\alpha /2)} or 1 2 sin 2 α {\textstyle {\frac {1}{2}}\sin ^{2}\alpha } . The expression sin − 1 α {\displaystyle \sin ^{-1}\alpha } means arcsin ( α ) {\displaystyle \arcsin(\alpha )} in several texts, though it might be thought to mean ( sin α ) − 1 {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{-1}} , since sin n α {\displaystyle \sin ^{n}\alpha } commonly means ( sin α ) n {\displaystyle (\sin \alpha )^{n}} . Conversely, sin 2 α {\displaystyle \sin ^{2}\alpha } might seem to mean sin ( sin α ) {\displaystyle \sin(\sin \alpha )} , as this exponentiation notation usually denotes function iteration : in general, f 2 ( x ) {\displaystyle f^{2}(x)} means f ( f ( x ) ) {\displaystyle f(f(x))} . However, for trigonometric and hyperbolic functions , this notation conventionally means exponentiation of
5445-427: The biological order and participating in the development of multicellular organisms, precedes by millions of years the emergence of human consciousness and the creation of the scientific culture that produced the chemical nomenclature. Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense, assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind, and patterns circulating (due to feedback ) in
5544-403: The chosen language in terms of its agreed syntax and semantics. The sender codes the message in the language and sends the message as signals along some communication channel (empirics). The chosen communication channel has inherent properties that determine outcomes such as the speed at which communication can take place, and over what distance. The existence of information about a closed system
5643-509: The computation and digital representation of data, and assists users in pattern recognition and anomaly detection . Information security (shortened as InfoSec) is the ongoing process of exercising due diligence to protect information, and information systems, from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, destruction, modification, disruption or distribution, through algorithms and procedures focused on monitoring and detection, as well as incident response and repair. Ambiguity Ambiguity
5742-479: The concept of paradox synonymously with "ambiguity". Many Christians and Jews endorse Rudolf Otto 's description of the sacred as 'mysterium tremendum et fascinans', the awe-inspiring mystery that fascinates humans. The apocryphal Book of Judith is noted for the "ingenious ambiguity" expressed by its heroine; for example, she says to the villain of the story, Holofernes , "my lord will not fail to achieve his purposes", without specifying whether my lord refers to
5841-404: The context of a proposition has a name meaning." A highly confusing term is gain . For example, the sentence "the gain of a system should be doubled", without context, means close to nothing. The term intensity is ambiguous when applied to light. The term can refer to any of irradiance , luminous intensity , radiant intensity , or radiance , depending on the background of the person using
5940-415: The context of some social situation. The social situation sets the context for the intentions conveyed (pragmatics) and the form of communication. In a communicative situation intentions are expressed through messages that comprise collections of inter-related signs taken from a language mutually understood by the agents involved in the communication. Mutual understanding implies that agents involved understand
6039-401: The effect of its past and the cause of its future ". Quantum physics instead encodes information as a wave function , which prevents observers from directly identifying all of its possible measurements . Prior to the publication of Bell's theorem , determinists reconciled with this behavior using hidden variable theories , which argued that the information necessary to predict the future of
SECTION 60
#17328456802446138-468: The empirical findings of science. She states: "Since we do not succeed in fleeing it, let us, therefore, try to look the truth in the face. Let us try to assume our fundamental ambiguity. It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reason for acting". Other continental philosophers suggest that concepts such as life, nature, and sex are ambiguous. Corey Anton has argued that we cannot be certain what
6237-434: The ethics which they have proposed to their disciples has always pursued the same goal. It has been a matter of eliminating the ambiguity by making oneself pure inwardness or pure externality, by escaping from the sensible world or being engulfed by it, by yielding to eternity or enclosing oneself in the pure moment." Ethics cannot be based on the authoritative certainty given by mathematics and logic, or prescribed directly from
6336-437: The exchanged digital number sequence, an efficient unique link to its online definition can be set. This online-defined digital information (number sequence) would be globally comparable and globally searchable. The English word "information" comes from Middle French enformacion/informacion/information 'a criminal investigation' and its etymon, Latin informatiō(n) 'conception, teaching, creation'. In English, "information"
6435-504: The face of death. In calling his work Being and Nothingness an "essay in phenomenological ontology" Jean-Paul Sartre follows Heidegger in defining the human essence as ambiguous, or relating fundamentally to such ambiguity. Simone de Beauvoir tries to base an ethics on Heidegger's and Sartre's writings (The Ethics of Ambiguity), where she highlights the need to grapple with ambiguity: "as long as there have been philosophers and they have thought, most of them have tried to mask it ... And
6534-402: The fear that they may have misinterpreted the situation and acted unnecessarily. Alternately, non-ambiguous emergencies (e.g. an injured person verbally asking for help) elicit more consistent intervention and assistance. With regard to the bystander effect , studies have shown that emergencies deemed ambiguous trigger the appearance of the classic bystander effect (wherein more witnesses decrease
6633-417: The final step information is interpreted and becomes knowledge in a given domain . In a digital signal , bits may be interpreted into the symbols, letters, numbers, or structures that convey the information available at the next level up. The key characteristic of information is that it is subject to interpretation and processing. The derivation of information from a signal or message may be thought of as
6732-448: The formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind. One might argue though that for a human to consciously define a pattern, for example a nucleotide, naturally involves conscious information processing. However, the existence of unicellular and multicellular organisms, with the complex biochemistry that leads, among other events, to the existence of enzymes and polynucleotides that interact maintaining
6831-420: The idea of " two ", as in "two meanings"). The concept of ambiguity is generally contrasted with vagueness . In ambiguity, specific and distinct interpretations are permitted (although some may not be immediately obvious), whereas with vague information it is difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity. Lexical ambiguity is contrasted with semantic ambiguity . The former represents
6930-401: The idea of "information catalysts", structures where emerging information promotes the transition from pattern recognition to goal-directed action (for example, the specific transformation of a substrate into a product by an enzyme, or auditory reception of words and the production of an oral response) The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms argues that information only provides an answer to
7029-418: The internet, but only gave search results which are vetted by Davindi editors. Apart from text documents, also videos images and sound files could be found. The search engine also gave results from other educational sources such as Kennislink. Davindi gave results from more than 50,000 sources related to primary and secondary education, vocational education and adult education. Information Information
7128-895: The irrecoverability of any information about the matter to have originally crossed the event horizon , violating both classical and quantum assertions against the ability to destroy information. The information cycle (addressed as a whole or in its distinct components) is of great concern to information technology , information systems , as well as information science . These fields deal with those processes and techniques pertaining to information capture (through sensors ) and generation (through computation , formulation or composition), processing (including encoding, encryption, compression, packaging), transmission (including all telecommunication methods), presentation (including visualization / display methods), storage (such as magnetic or optical, including holographic methods ), etc. Information visualization (shortened as InfoVis) depends on
7227-403: The issue of signs with the context within which signs are used. The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of living agents underlying communicative behaviour. In other words, pragmatics link language to action. Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act. Semantics considers the content of communication. Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs –
7326-529: The likelihood of any of them helping) far more than non-ambiguous emergencies. In computer science , the SI prefixes kilo- , mega- and giga- were historically used in certain contexts to mean either the first three powers of 1024 (1024, 1024 and 1024 ) contrary to the metric system in which these units unambiguously mean one thousand, one million, and one billion. This usage is particularly prevalent with electronic memory devices (e.g. DRAM ) addressed directly by
7425-411: The limitations of Shannon-Weaver information when attempting to characterize and measure subjective information. Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern. Consider, for example, DNA . The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences
7524-633: The logical concept of underdetermination —for example, X = Y {\displaystyle X=Y} leaves open what the value of X {\displaystyle X} is—while overdetermination, except when like X = 1 , X = 1 , X = 1 {\displaystyle X=1,X=1,X=1} , is a self-contradiction , also called inconsistency , paradoxicalness , or oxymoron , or in mathematics an inconsistent system —such as X = 2 , X = 3 {\displaystyle X=2,X=3} , which has no solution. Logical ambiguity and self-contradiction
7623-438: The multi-faceted concept of information in terms of signs and signal-sign systems. Signs themselves can be considered in terms of four inter-dependent levels, layers or branches of semiotics : pragmatics, semantics, syntax, and empirics. These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technical world on the other. Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication. Pragmatics links
7722-408: The new style) as to whether the usage of k, M, and G remains ambiguous (old style) or not (new style). 1 M (where M is ambiguously 1 000 000 or 1 048 576 ) is less uncertain than the engineering value 1.0 × 10 (defined to designate the interval 950 000 to 1 050 000 ). As non-volatile storage devices begin to exceed 1 GB in capacity (where the ambiguity begins to routinely impact
7821-436: The occurrence of a causal input at a later time (and perhaps another place). Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input. In practice, information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or system. For example, light
7920-414: The operations of division and multiplication have equal priority and are executed from left to right. Until the last century, many editorials assumed that multiplication is performed first, for example, a / b c {\displaystyle a/bc} is interpreted as a / ( b c ) {\displaystyle a/(bc)} ; in this case, the insertion of parentheses
8019-594: The organization or to meet legal, fiscal or accountability requirements imposed on the organization. Willis expressed the view that sound management of business records and information delivered "...six key requirements for good corporate governance ...transparency; accountability; due process; compliance; meeting statutory and common law requirements; and security of personal and corporate information." Michael Buckland has classified "information" in terms of its uses: "information as process", "information as knowledge", and "information as thing". Beynon-Davies explains
8118-423: The probability of occurrence. Information theory takes advantage of this by concluding that more uncertain events require more information to resolve their uncertainty. The bit is a typical unit of information . It is 'that which reduces uncertainty by half'. Other units such as the nat may be used. For example, the information encoded in one "fair" coin flip is log 2 (2/1) = 1 bit, and in two fair coin flips
8217-457: The reader is supposed to be able to perform the deduction and reveal the true meaning. Creators of algorithmic languages try to avoid ambiguities. Many algorithmic languages ( C++ and Fortran ) require the character * as symbol of multiplication. The Wolfram Language used in Mathematica allows the user to omit the multiplication symbol, but requires square brackets to indicate the argument of
8316-487: The resolution of ambiguity or uncertainty that arises during the interpretation of patterns within the signal or message. Information may be structured as data . Redundant data can be compressed up to an optimal size, which is the theoretical limit of compression. The information available through a collection of data may be derived by analysis. For example, a restaurant collects data from every customer order. That information may be analyzed to produce knowledge that
8415-705: The result of function application. The expression a / 2 b {\displaystyle a/2b} can be interpreted as meaning ( a / 2 ) b {\displaystyle (a/2)b} ; however, it is more commonly understood to mean a / ( 2 b ) {\displaystyle a/(2b)} . It is common to define the coherent states in quantum optics with | α ⟩ {\displaystyle ~|\alpha \rangle ~} and states with fixed number of photons with | n ⟩ {\displaystyle ~|n\rangle ~} . Then, there
8514-438: The semantic level: the visual image is unambiguous, but the meaning and narrative may be ambiguous: is a certain facial expression one of excitement or fear, for instance? In social psychology , ambiguity is a factor used in determining peoples' responses to various situations. High levels of ambiguity in an emergency (e.g. an unconscious man lying on a park bench) make witnesses less likely to offer any sort of assistance, due to
8613-626: The song title "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (where "blue" can refer to the color, or to sadness). In the narrative, ambiguity can be introduced in several ways: motive, plot, character. F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the latter type of ambiguity with notable effect in his novel The Great Gatsby . Mathematical notation is a helpful tool that eliminates a lot of misunderstandings associated with natural language in physics and other sciences . Nonetheless, there are still some inherent ambiguities due to lexical , syntactic , and semantic reasons that persist in mathematical notation. The ambiguity in
8712-471: The specific context associated with this interpretation may cause the transformation of the information into knowledge . Complex definitions of both "information" and "knowledge" make such semantic and logical analysis difficult, but the condition of "transformation" is an important point in the study of information as it relates to knowledge, especially in the business discipline of knowledge management . In this practice, tools and processes are used to assist
8811-462: The state with certain value of the momentum, which may be used in books on quantum mechanics . Such ambiguities easily lead to confusions, especially if some normalized adimensional , dimensionless variables are used. Expression | 1 ⟩ {\displaystyle |1\rangle } may mean a state with single photon, or the coherent state with mean amplitude equal to 1, or state with momentum equal to unity, and so on. The reader
8910-437: The statement in the most desirable way, and think the politician supports everyone's opinion. However, the opposite can also be true—an opponent can turn a positive statement into a bad one if the speaker uses ambiguity (intentionally or not). The logical fallacies of amphiboly and equivocation rely heavily on the use of ambiguous words and phrases. In continental philosophy (particularly phenomenology and existentialism), there
9009-418: The study of the form rather than the content of signs and sign systems. Nielsen (2008) discusses the relationship between semiotics and information in relation to dictionaries. He introduces the concept of lexicographic information costs and refers to the effort a user of a dictionary must make to first find, and then understand data so that they can generate information. Communication normally exists within
9108-520: The style of writing a function should not be confused with a multivalued function , which can (and should) be defined in a deterministic and unambiguous way. Several special functions still do not have established notations. Usually, the conversion to another notation requires to scale the argument or the resulting value; sometimes, the same name of the function is used, causing confusions. Examples of such underestablished functions: Ambiguous expressions often appear in physical and mathematical texts. It
9207-715: The success of the Voyager missions to deep space, the invention of the compact disc , the feasibility of mobile phones and the development of the Internet. The theory has also found applications in other areas, including statistical inference , cryptography , neurobiology , perception , linguistics, the evolution and function of molecular codes ( bioinformatics ), thermal physics , quantum computing , black holes , information retrieval , intelligence gathering , plagiarism detection , pattern recognition , anomaly detection and even art creation. Often information can be viewed as
9306-434: The system can be called information. In other words, it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation, though not created or presented for that purpose. For example, Gregory Bateson defines "information" as a "difference that makes a difference". If, however, the premise of "influence" implies that information has been perceived by a conscious mind and also interpreted by it,
9405-700: The term. Also, confusions may be related with the use of atomic percent as measure of concentration of a dopant , or resolution of an imaging system, as measure of the size of the smallest detail that still can be resolved at the background of statistical noise. See also Accuracy and precision . The Berry paradox arises as a result of systematic ambiguity in the meaning of terms such as "definable" or "nameable". Terms of this kind give rise to vicious circle fallacies. Other terms with this type of ambiguity are: satisfiable, true, false, function, property, class, relation, cardinal, and ordinal. In mathematics and logic, ambiguity can be considered to be an instance of
9504-416: The transaction of business". The International Committee on Archives (ICA) Committee on electronic records defined a record as, "recorded information produced or received in the initiation, conduct or completion of an institutional or individual activity and that comprises content, context and structure sufficient to provide evidence of the activity". Records may be maintained to retain corporate memory of
9603-653: The villain or to God. The orthodox Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton regularly employed paradox to tease out the meanings in common concepts that he found ambiguous or to reveal meaning often overlooked or forgotten in common phrases: the title of one of his most famous books, Orthodoxy (1908), itself employed such a paradox. In music , pieces or sections that confound expectations and may be or are interpreted simultaneously in different ways are ambiguous, such as some polytonality , polymeter , other ambiguous meters or rhythms , and ambiguous phrasing , or (Stein 2005, p. 79) any aspect of music . The music of Africa
9702-460: Was meant to be conveyed. An exception to this could include a politician whose " weasel words " and obfuscation are necessary to gain support from multiple constituents with mutually exclusive conflicting desires from his or her candidate of choice. Ambiguity is a powerful tool of political science . More problematic are words whose multiple meanings express closely related concepts. "Good", for example, can mean "useful" or "functional" ( That's
9801-443: Was the informational equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day in 2007. The world's combined effective capacity to exchange information through two-way telecommunication networks was the informational equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day in 2007. As of 2007, an estimated 90% of all new information is digital, mostly stored on hard drives. The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally
#243756