The Information

by James Gleick

  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.

  Index

  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

  Benton, Billy

  Benzer, Seymour, 10.1, 10.2

  Bernoulli numbers, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3

  Berry, G. G., 6.1, 6.2

  Berry’s paradox, 6.1, 6.2, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3

  Bible

  Bierce, Ambrose

  Bigelow, Julian

  binary operations

  coding systems for, 5.1, 5.2

  representation of relay circuits as

  in telegraphy, 7.1, 8.1

  in use of alphabetical ordering systems

  see also bit(s)

  biology

  entropy and, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4

  evolutionary, 10.1, 11.1

  fundamental particles of

  of human ecosystem, 10.1, 10.2

  information processing in, prl.1, prl.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4

  molecular, 9.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3

  purposeful action in processes of, 9.1, 9.2

  see also genetics; neurophysiology

  biosphere, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3

  bit(s)

  as basis of physics, prl.1, prl.2, 13.1, 13.2

  biological measurements

  cost of information processing

  data compression strategies, 12.1, 12.2

  decision-making requirements

  definition of, prl.1, 7.1

  first usage

  growth of measuring units, 14.1, 14.2

  meaning and

  measurement of cosmos in, prl.1, 14.1

  purpose

  transmission by fire beacon, 1.1, 1.2

  black holes, prl.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4

  Blair, Ann

  Blair, Earl

  Bletchley Park, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1

  Blount, Thomas, 3.1, 3.2

  Bodleian Library, 3.1, 3.2, 6.1

  Bohr, Niels, prl.1, 6.1, 13.1

  Boltzmann, Ludwig, 9.1, 9.2

  Bombe machine

  book burning

  Boole, George, prl.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 8.2, 12.1

  Borges, Jorge Luis, 14.1, 14.2, epl.1, epl.2

  botanical dictionaries, 14.1, 14.2, 15.1

  Bradley, Henry, 3.1, 3.2

  Brahe, Tycho, 4.1, 15.1

  brain; see neurophysiology

  Brassard, Gilles, 13.1, 13.2

  “Breakdown of Physics in Gravitational Collapse, The” (Hawking)

  Brecht, Bertolt

  Breguet, Abraham-Louis, 5.1, 5.2

  Brenner, Sydney, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3

  Brewster, David, 4.1, 8.1

  Bridenbaugh, Carl, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3

  Briggs, Henry, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5

  Brillouin, Léon, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3

  Brin, Sergey, 14.1, epl.1

  Broadbent, Donald, 8.1, 8.2

  Brosin, Henry

  Brown, Robert

  Browne, Thomas, 1.1, 1.2, 5.1

  Brownian motion, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1

  Brunel, Isambard Kingdom

  Buchanan, James

  Bullokar, John

  Burgess, Anthony

  Burney, Venetia

  Burton, Robert, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3

  Bush, Vannevar, prl.1, prl.2, 5.1n, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1

  Butler, Samuel, 2.1, 10.1, 10.2

  butterfly effect

  Byron, Augusta Ada; see Lovelace, Ada

  Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 4.1, 4.2

  bytes

  Cage, John, 12.1, 12.2

  Cairns-Smith, Alexander, 10.1, 10.2

  calculators, calculating machines

  analog and digital

  Babbage’s 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

  Babbage’s 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, 4.16, 4.17, 4.18, 6.1

  definition of “calculation,” 7.1

  Differential Analyzer, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4

  in evolution of information technology, prl.1, 4.1

  use of relay circuits in

  see also computation; computer(s); machines

  calculus, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, epl.1

  Campbell, George, prl.1, prl.2

  “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?” (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen)

  Carnot, Nicolas Sadi

  Carpenter, Margaret

  Carreras, José

  Carrington, John F., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

  Carroll, Lewis, 5.1, 5.2, 14.1

  Carty, John J.

  catalogues of information, 5.1, 14.1, 15.1

  botanical, 14.1, 14.2

  of cryptographic techniques

  genes as, 10.1, 10.2

  for libraries, 3.1, 3.2

  search techniques for, 15.1, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3

  of telegraph messages

  see also dictionaries

  Catholicon (Balbus)

  Cawdrey, Robert, 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, 3.14

  Cawdrey, Thomas

  cellular processes, prl.1, prl.2, 9.1, 9.2

  Celts

  Central Dogma

  “Certain Factors Affecting Telegraph Speed” (Nyquist)

  Chadwyck-Healey, Charles

  chain letters, as examples of memes, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3

  Chains (Karinthy)

  Chaitin, Gregory, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9, 12.10, 12.11, 12.12, 12.13, 12.14, 12.15

  Champernowne, David

  Chandler, Raymond

  Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan

  channels

  applications of information theory

  definition of

  multiplexed

  psychological formulation

  quantum, 13.1, 13.2

  transmission capacity of, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5,
7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1, 8.2

  writing as, 2.1, 2.2

  see also bandwidth

  chaos theory, 8.1, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 14.1, 14.2

  Chappe, Claude, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7

  Chappe, Ignace, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

  Chappe, Pierre

  Chappe, René

  Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 4.1, 4.2

  Cherry, Colin

  chess-playing machines, 8.1, 8.2

  China, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1

  Chomsky, Noam

  chromosomes, 6.1, 7.1, 9.1, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2

  Churchill, Winston, prl.1, prl.2, 7.1

  circularity

  in defining words, 3.1, 3.2

  Gödel’s critique of Principia Mathematica, 6.1

  in paradoxes

  Clark, Josiah Latimer

  Clarke, Roger T.

  classification, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2

  Clausius, Rudolf, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3

  Clauson-Thue, William, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3

  Clement, Joseph, 4.1, 4.2

  clocks, synchronization of, 1.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4

  cloud, information, 14.1, 14.2

  clustering

  Clytemnestra

  code

  attempts to reduce cost of telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2

  Babbage’s interest in

  cipher and compression systems for telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6

  Enigma, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3

  genetic, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10

  in Jacquard loom operations

  Morse, prl.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 6.1, 11.1

  as noise

  for printing telegraph

  Shannon’s interest in, prl.1, 6.1, 7.1

  telegraphy before Morse code, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7

  see also cryptography

  coding theory, 8.1, 8.2, 10.1, 12.1

  cognitive science, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4

  Colebrooke, Henry

  collective consciousness, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3, epl.4, epl.5

  Colossus computing machine

  Columbus, Christopher

  combinatorial analysis, 6.1, 10.1, 10.2

  communication

  by algorithm

  with alien life-form, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5

  Babbage’s mechanical notation for describing, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1

  constrained channels of, 2.1, 2.2

  disruptive effects of new technologies in, 15.1, 15.2

  emergence of global consciousness, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3

  evolution of electrical technologies for, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2

  fundamental problem of, prl.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1

  human evolution and, prl.1, prl.2

  implications of technological evolution of, 15.1, 15.2

  information overload and, epl.1, epl.2

  knowledge needs for, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3