The Information (96 page)

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Scientific American
(September 1998): 32–33.

Stonier, Tom.
Beyond Information: The Natural History of Intelligence
. London: Springer-Verlag, 1992.

———.
Information and Meaning: An Evolutionary Perspective
. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997.

Streufert, Siegfried, Peter Suedfeld, and Michael J. Driver. “Conceptual Structure, Information Search, and Information Utilization.”
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2, no. 5 (1965): 736–40.

Sunstein, Cass R.
Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Surowiecki, James.
The Wisdom of Crowds
. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Swade, Doron. “The World Reduced to Number.”
Isis
82, no. 3 (1991): 532–36.

———.
The Cogwheel Brain: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer
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———.
The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer
. New York: Viking, 2001.

Swift, Jonathan.
A Tale of a Tub: Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind
. 1692.

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Behavioral Science
9, no. 4 (1964): 301–10.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre.
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. Translated by Sarah Appleton-Weber. Brighton, U.K.: Sussex Academic Press, 1999.

Terhal, Barbara M. “Is Entanglement Monogamous?”
IBM Journal of Research and Development
48, no. 1 (2004): 71–78.

Thompson, A. J., and Karl Pearson. “Henry Briggs and His Work on Logarithms.”
American Mathematical Monthly
32, no. 3 (1925): 129–31.

Thomsen, Samuel W. “Some Evidence Concerning the Genesis of Shannon’s Information Theory.”
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
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IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
18, no. 3 (1996): 4–12.

———.
Ada, the Enchantress of Numbers: Prophet of the Computer Age
. Mill Valley, Calif.: Strawberry Press, 1998.

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Turing, Alan M. “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the
Entscheidungsproblem
.”
Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society
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———. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”
Minds and Machines
59, no. 236 (1950): 433–60.

———. “The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.”
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B
237, no. 641 (1952): 37–72.

Turnbull, Laurence.
The Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, With an Historical Account of Its Rise, Progress, and Present Condition
. Philadelphia: A. Hart, 1853.

Vail, Alfred.
The American Electro Magnetic Telegraph: With the Reports of Congress, and a Description of All Telegraphs Known, Employing Electricity Or Galvanism
. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1847.

Verdú, Sergio. “Fifty Years of Shannon Theory.”
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
44, no. 6 (1998): 2057–78.

Vincent, David.
Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750–1914
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Virilio, Paul.
The Information Bomb
. Translated by Chris Turner. London: Verso, 2000.

von Baeyer, Hans Christian.
Maxwell’s Demon: Why Warmth Disperses and Time Passes
. New York: Random House, 1998.

———.
Information: The New Language of Science
. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004.

von Foerster, Heinz.
Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems: Transactions of the Seventh Conference, March 23–24, 1950
. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1951.

———.
Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems: Transactions of the Eighth Conference, March 15–16, 1951
. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1952.

———. “Interview with Stefano Franchi, Güven Güzeldere, and Eric Minch.”
Stanford Humanities Review
4, no. 2 (1995). Available online at
http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/4-2/text/interviewvonf.html
.

von Neumann, John.
The Computer and the Brain
. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1958.

———.
Collected Works
. Vols. 1–6. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1961.

Vulpiani, A., and Roberto Livi.
The Kolmogorov Legacy in Physics: A Century of Turbulence and Complexity
. Lecture Notes in Physics, no. 642. Berlin: Springer, 2003.

Waldrop, M. Mitchell. “Reluctant Father of the Digital Age.”
Technology Review
(July–August 2001): 64–71.

Wang, Hao. “Some Facts About Kurt Gödel.”
Journal of Symbolic Logic
46 (1981): 653–59.

Watson, David L. “Biological Organization.”
Quarterly Review of Biology
6, no. 2 (1931): 143–66.

Watson, James D.
The Double Helix
. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

———.
Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix
. New York: Knopf, 2002.

———.
Molecular Models of Life
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Watson, James D., and Francis Crick. “A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.”
Nature
171 (1953): 737.

———. “Genetical Implications of the Structure of Deoxyribonucleic Acid.”
Nature
171 (1953): 964–66.

Watts, Duncan J. “Networks, Dynamics, and the Small-World Phenomenon.”
American Journal of Sociology
105, no. 2 (1999): 493–527.

———.
Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks Between Order and Randomness
. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1999.

———.
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
. New York: Norton, 2003.

Watts, Duncan J., and Steven H. Strogatz. “Collective Dynamics of ‘Small-World’ Networks.”
Nature
393 (1998): 440–42.

Weaver, Warren. “The Mathematics of Communication.”
Scientific American
181, no. 1 (1949): 11–15.

Wells, H. G.
World Brain
. London: Methuen, 1938.

———.
A Short History of the World
. San Diego: Book Tree, 2000.

Wheeler, John Archibald. “Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links.”
Proceedings of the Third International Symposium on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
(1989): 354–68.

———.
At Home in the Universe
.
Masters of Modern Physics
, vol. 9. New York: American Institute of Physics, 1994.

Wheeler, John Archibald, with Kenneth Ford.
Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics
. New York: Norton, 1998.

Whitehead, Alfred North, and Bertrand Russell.
Principia Mathematica
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910.

Wiener, Norbert.
Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1961.

———.
I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy
. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1964.

Wiener, Philip P., ed.
Leibniz Selections
. New York: Scribner’s, 1951.

Wilkins, John.
Mercury: Or the Secret and Swift Messenger. Shewing, How a Man May With Privacy and Speed Communicate His Thoughts to a Friend At Any Distance
. 3rd ed. London: John Nicholson, 1708.

Williams, Michael.
A History of Computing Technology
. Washington, D.C.: IEEE Computer Society, 1997.

Wilson, Geoffrey.
The Old Telegraphs
. London: Phillimore, 1976.

Winchester, Simon.
The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Wisdom, J. O. “The Hypothesis of Cybernetics.”
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
2, no. 5 (1951): 1–24.

Wittgenstein, Ludwig.
Philosophical Investigation
. Translated by G. E. M. Anscombe. New York: Macmillan, 1953.

———.
Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics
. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1967.

Woodward, Kathleen.
The Myths of Information: Technology and Postindustrial Culture
. Madison, Wisc.: Coda Press, 1980.

Woolley, Benjamin.
The Bride of Science: Romance, Reason, and Byron’s Daughter
. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.

Wynter, Andrew. “The Electric Telegraph.”
Quarterly Review
95 (1854): 118–64.

———.
Subtle Brains and Lissom Fingers: Being Some of the Chisel-Marks of Our Industrial and Scientific Progress
. London: Robert Hardwicke, 1863.

Yeo, Richard. “Reading Encyclopedias: Science and the Organization of Knowledge in British Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences, 1730–1850.”
Isis
82:1 (1991): 24–49.

———.
Encyclopædic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Yockey, Hubert P.
Information Theory, Evolution, and the Origin of Life
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Young, Peter.
Person to Person: The International Impact of the Telephone
. Cambridge: Granta, 1991.

Yourgrau, Palle.
A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein
. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

Yovits, Marshall C., George T. Jacobi, and Gordon D. Goldstein, eds.
Self-Organizing Systems
. Washington D.C.: Spartan, 1962.

It is much easier to talk about information than it is to say what it is you are talking about. A surprising number of books, and this includes textbooks, have the word
information
in their title without bothering to include it in the index.

—Fred I. Dretske (1979)

Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

Aaboe, Asger,
2.1
,
2.2

abacus,
4.1
,
8.1

A B C Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
,
The
(Clauson-Thue),
5.1
,
5.2

abstraction

logic and,
2.1
,
2.2

in mathematical computation

origins of thinking and

words representing,
2.1
,
3.1

Adams, Brooks

Adams, Frederick

Adams, Henry

Aeschylus

African languages
;
see also
talking drums

Aharonov, Dorit

Airy, George Biddell

“Algebra for Theoretical Genetics, An” (Shannon),
6.1
,
6.2
,
6.3

algebra of logic,
prl.1
,
8.1
;
see also
symbolic logic

algorithmic information theory,
12.1
,
12.2
,
12.3
,
12.4
,
12.5

algorithm(s)

to calculate complexity,
12.1
,
12.2

to control accuracy and speed of communication,
7.1
,
7.2

data compression

to describe biological processes,
10.1
,
10.2

to generate uninteresting number,
12.1
,
12.2

historical evolution of,
2.1
,
2.2
,
4.1
,
7.1

Lovelace’s operations for Analytical Engine as

for measurement of computability

for measurement of information,
12.1
,
12.2
,
12.3
,
12.4

number tables based on,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3

for proof of number’s randomness,
12.1
,
12.2

to reconstruct phylogeny

scientific method as,
12.1
,
12.2

Shor’s factoring,
13.1
,
13.2

Turing machine,
7.1
,
7.2

Alice in Wonderland
(Carroll)

Allen, William

alphabet(s)

as code

evolution of,
2.1
,
2.2
,
3.1

evolution of telegraph coding systems and,
5.1
,
5.2
,
5.3
,
5.4

information transmission capacity of,
6.1
,
7.1

letter frequency in,
1.1
,
7.1

Morse code representation of

order of letters in,
3.1
,
3.2
,
3.3

organization of information based on,
3.1
,
3.2

AltaVista,
epl.1
,
epl.2

altruism,
10.1
,
10.2
,
10.3

American Telephone & Telegraph,
prl.1
,
6.1
,
7.1

amino acids,
10.1
,
10.2
,
10.3
,
10.4
,
10.5
,
10.6

Ampère, André-Marie,
5.1
,
5.2

amplitude modulation,
6.1
,
6.2
,
6.3

analog technology,
8.1
,
8.2

Analytical 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
,
6.1
,
7.1
,
8.1

Analytical Society,
4.1
,
4.2

Anatomy of Melancholy, The
(Burton)

Anglo-American Cyclopedia, The
(Borges)

Anglo-Saxon speech,
3.1
,
3.2

anthropocentrism

antiaircraft guns and artillery,
prl.1
,
6.1
,
6.2
,
7.1
,
8.1
,
8.2
,
8.3
,
12.1
,
12.2

aperiodic crystals,
9.1
,
10.1

Arabic numerals

Arcadia
(Stoppard),
9.1
,
9.2
,
14.1

Aristotle and Aristotelian philosophy,
prl.1
,
2.1
,
2.2
,
2.3
,
2.4
,
2.5
,
2.6
,
2.7
,
14.1
,
14.2

Armani, Giorgio,
14.1
,
14.2

Arte of Rhetorique, The
(Wilson)

artificial intelligence,
prl.1
,
12.1
;
see also
machines, attribution of thinking to

Ashby, W. Ross

astronomy

atomic science,
prl.1
,
7.1
,
8.1
,
9.1
,
9.2
,
12.1

Atwood, Margaret,
11.1
,
epl.1
,
epl.2

Auden, W. H.

automata,
4.1
,
8.1
,
8.2
,
8.3

chess automata

aviation radio

Babbage, Charles,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3
,
5.1
,
6.1
,
6.2
,
7.1
,
7.2
,
7.3
,
8.1
,
8.2

Analytical Engine of,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3
,
4.4
,
4.5
,
4.6
,
4.7
,
4.8
,
4.9
,
4.10
,
4.11
,
4.12
,
6.1
,
7.1
,
8.1

at Cambridge,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3
,
4.4
,
4.5

cryptographic work of,
5.1
,
5.2
,
7.1

Difference Engine of,
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
,
4.16
,
4.17
,
4.18
,
6.1

early life,
4.1
,
4.2

information transmission studies of,
4.1
,
4.2

language work of,
4.1
,
4.2

Lovelace and,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3
,
4.4
,
4.5
,
4.6
,
4.7
,
4.8
,
4.9

mechanical notation system of,
4.1
,
4.2
,
5.1
,
6.1

on persistence of thought and information,
14.1
,
14.2
,
14.3

personal qualities,
4.1
,
4.2

railroad studies of,
4.1
,
4.2

range of interests and expertise,
4.1
,
4.2
,
4.3
,
4.4
,
4.5
,
4.6

vision of future of,
4.1
,
4.2

Babbage, Georgiana Whitmore

Babel,
14.1
,
14.2
,
14.3
,
epl.1
,
epl.2

Babylonian culture,
2.1
,
2.2
,
2.3
,
2.4
,
2.5

Bach, Johann Sebastian,
12.1
,
12.2
,
12.3
,
12.4

Bacon, Francis

bacteria,
10.1
,
10.2
,
10.3

Baker, Nicholson,
14.1
,
14.2
,
epl.1
,
epl.2

Balbus, Johannes

Balzac, Honoré de

bandwidth,
6.1
,
6.2
,
6.3
,
8.1
,
8.2
,
12.1

ban unit of probability

Banville, John

Barber paradox

Baruch, Bernard M.

Barwise, Jon

Bates, John

Bateson, Gregory,
8.1
,
8.2

Baudot code

Bavelas, Alex

Beethoven, Ludwig von,
11.1
,
15.1
,
epl.1

Bell, Alexander Graham,
6.1
,
6.2

Bell, Gordon

Bell Laboratories,
prl.1
,
prl.2
,
prl.3
,
prl.4
,
1.1
,
3.1
,
6.1
,
6.2
,
6.3
,
6.4
,
6.5
,
7.1
,
7.2
,
7.3
,
8.1
,
8.2

Bell System Technical Journal,
prl.1
,
6.1
,
7.1

Bell Telephone Company

Bennett, Charles H.,
11.1
,
11.2
,
12.1
,
12.2
,
13.1
,
13.2
,
13.3
,
13.4
,
13.5
,
13.6
,
13.7
,
13.8
,
13.9
,
13.10
,
13.11
,
15.1