What Just Happened: A Chronicle From the Information Frontier
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iatroepidemics
IBM, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 14.1, 14.2
ideas, compared to biosphere, 11.1, 11.2; see also memes
idiographic writing
Iliad (Homer)
images
compressibility of
memes as
recording of, 14.1, 14.2
imagination, 2.1n, 4.1, 4.2, 7.1
Imitation Game (Turing), 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
incompleteness theorem
algorithmic proof of randomness and, 12.1, 12.2
chaos theory and, 12.1, 12.2
decision problem and, 7.1, 7.2
proof of, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
significance of, 6.1, 6.2
Turing machine and
indexes, 15.1, 15.2, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
inductive reasoning
Infinities, The (Banville)
“Information Is Inevitably Physical” (Landauer)
“Information Is Physical” (Landauer)
information overload
in Borges’s “Library of Babel,” 14.1
e-mail and, 15.1, 15.2
filter and search strategies to prevent, 15.1, 15.2
historical fears of, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
human–computer comparison of effects of
knowledge and, 15.1, 15.2
manifestations of, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
meaning and, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3, epl.4
psychological studies of, 15.1, 15.2
technological progress and, prl.1, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 15.4
information theory
attempts to add semantic counterpart to
on control of redundancy in messages, 7.1, 7.2
cryptography and
development in England, 8.1, 8.2
diagram of communication in, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
genetic science and, prl.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7
language as possibility in, epl.1, epl.2
measurement of information in, 7.1, 7.2
message value in, 12.1-3.1
noise source in, 7.1, 7.2
origins of, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, prl.4, 7.1; see also Mathematical Theory of Communication, The (Shannon, Weaver)
physics and, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3
place of meaning in, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, epl.1, epl.2
response of wider scientific community to, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9
response to Shannon’s initial publication, 8.1, 8.2
significance of, prl.1, prl.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
in Soviet Union, 12.1, 12.2
system states in
theories of psychology and, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7
see also quantum information science
Internet, 11.1, 11.2, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
It from Bit (Wheeler), prl.1, 13.1
Jacobson, Homer
Jacquard, Joseph-Marie
Jacquard loom, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 12.1
James, William, 8.1, 8.2
János, Neumann; see John von Neumann
Jaynes, Julian, 2.1, 2.2
Jennings, Allan
Johannsen, Wilhelm
John of Salisbury
Johnson, John B.
Johnson, Samuel, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
Johnstone, James
Joncourt, Élie de, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
Jones, Alexander
Jonsson, Lars
Jowett, Benjamin
Judson, Horace Freeland
Just, Ward
Kahn, David
Karinthy, Frigyes
Kele language, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord
Kepler, Johannes
Kermode, Frank, 2.1, 2.2
Keynes, John Maynard
Khwarizmi, Abu Abdullah Mohammad Ibn Musa al-
Kierkegaard, Søren
King, August Ada; see Lovelace, Ada
King, William
Klüver, Heinrich
knowledge
curse of omniscience, epl.1, epl.2
emergence of global consciousness, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
epistemological theory of information
information overload and, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
limits to scientific investigation, 12.1, 12.2
in literate cultures, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6
power of
as product of logic
requirements for communication, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
transmission of, through human history, prl.1, prl.2
Knuth, Donald, 2.1, 2.2
Kolmogorov, Andrei Nikolaevich, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8
Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
Konversations-Lexikon, epl.1
Lacroix, Sylvestre François
Lagrange, Joseph Louis
Landauer, Rolf, 13.1, 13.2
Landowska, Wanda
Landsberg, Peter
Lane, Anthony, 15.1, 15.2
language
adaptations for telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2
Babbage’s work on, 4.1, 4.2
compressibility of
concept of mind and
for discussing language, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1
functions of, 5.1, 5.2
as infinite possibility, epl.1, epl.2
limitations of
measuring redundancy in, 1.1, 1.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
paradoxes of, 2.1, 2.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
pattern analysis
perfect
redundancy in, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 5.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 12.1
as shared experience
statistical structure of, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
symbolic expression of, 5.1, 5.2
technical, 3.1, 3.2
transmission capacity of Internet and, 3.1, 3.2
universal, 4.1, 6.1
see also oral culture; writing; specific language
Language Instinct, The (Pinker), 3.1, 3.2
Lanier, Jaron
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, 14.1, 14.2
Lardner, Dionysius, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2
Lasker, Edward
Latin language, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory
Laws of Thought, The (Boole), 5.1, 5.2
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1, 15.1, epl.1
Lem, Stanislaw
Le Roy, Édouard
Le Sage, Georges-Louis
Lever, Ralph
Levor, Norma, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Leyland numbers
Li, Ming, 11.1, 11.2
liar’s paradox
libraries, organization of materials in, 3.1, 3.2, 15.1
Library of Alexandria, 14.1, 14.2
“Library of Babel, The” (Borges), 14.1, 14.2, 15.1, epl.1, epl.2
Library of Congress, 7.1, 14.1, 14.2, epl.1
Licklider, J. C. R., 8.1, 8.2
life
definition of, 9.1, 9.2
entropy and, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4
origins of, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1
as vehicle for propagating memes
see also biology
lighthouses
Linnaeus, Carl
Littlewood, J. E.
Lloyd, Seth, prl.1, 13.1, 14.1
Locke, John
Loewenstein, Werner, prl.1, 10.1
Logarithmicall Arithmetike (Briggs)
logarithms, 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, 4.19, 4.20, 4.21, 7.1, 7.2
Logarithms (Taylor)
logic
circularity problem of words, 3.1, 3.2
concept of machines using, 7.1, 7.2
form of thinking for, 2.1, 2.2
function of, 2.1, 2.2
origins and early development of, 2.1, 2.2
paradoxes of, 2.1, 2.2, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
thought and, 5.1, 5.2
writing and, 2.1, 2.2
see also symb
olic logic
logical depth, 12.1, 12.2
logographic writing
Lokele tribe
longitude, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2
Lovelace, Ada, 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, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
background of, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
exposition on Menabrea’s essay, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5
illnesses and death of, 4.1, 4.2
mathematics studied by, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
Luria, Aleksandr Romanovich, 2.1, 2.2
Lyell, Charles
Lysenko, Trofim
Ma, Bin, 11.1, 11.2
machines
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
attribution of thinking to, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8
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
Differential Analyzer, prl.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 8.1
Enigma, 7.1, 7.2
Imitation Game to identify humans from, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
Jacquard loom, 4.1, 4.2
maze-navigating robot, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
memory function in
to prove computability of numbers, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6
purposeful behavior of
self-replicating, 8.1, 8.2
standardization of manufacturing
see also calculators; computer(s); Turing machine(s)
Mackay, Charles
macrostates, 9.1, 9.2
“Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two, The” (Miller)
magnetism, 1.1, 1.2, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1, 6.2
Mani, Anand Ramnath, 14.1, 14.2
Mantel, Hillary
maps and mapping, 4.1, 7.1, 14.1
Mark I computer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 8.2, 12.1, 14.1, epl.1
Mathematical Analysis of Logic (Boole)
Mathematical Theory of Communication, The (Shannon, Weaver), prl.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 7.10, 7.11, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, epl.1
“Mathematical Theory of Cryptography, A” (Shannon)
mathematics
Babbage’s Cambridge studies in, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5
Bablyonian, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6
ballistics modeling, 6.1, 6.2
code analysis
of cryptography, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 7.1, 7.2
desire for certainty in
differential equations, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
engineering and, 6.1, 6.2
expression of logic through
incompleteness theorem, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
to purge logic of paradox
search for perfect expression in
in signal research at Bell Labs, prl.1, prl.2
in telephone switching technology, 6.1, 6.2
uses of random numbers in
see also logarithms; numbers
Maxwell, James Clerk, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7
Maxwell’s demon, 8.1, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.1, 13.1, 13.2, 15.1, epl.1
Maynard Smith, John
McCarthy, John
McCulloch, Warren, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5
McLuhan, Marshall, prl.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 8.1, 15.1, epl.1
Mead, Margaret
meaning
in agenda for quantum information science
attempts to incorporate, into information theory
expressed through differences
future of science and
information overload and, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3, epl.4
language and, epl.1, epl.2
measurement of communication and
of numbers
in perfect language
Shannon’s information theory and, prl.1, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, epl.1, epl.2
symbolic logic and, 5.1, 5.2, 6.1
talking drum method of conveying, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
use of alphabetical ordering systems and
use of tonality to convey
see also definitions of words
measurement of information
algorithmic, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
combinatorial approach to
conceptual evolution of, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, prl.4, prl.5, prl.6, prl.7, 1.1, 6.1, 6.2
cosmic calculations, prl.1, prl.2, 14.1
expanding scale of, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4
measurement of message value and, 12.1, 12.2
measurement of randomness and
as measure of uncertainty, 7.1, 9.1, 9.2
in music, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3
probabilistic approach to, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 8.1, 12.1
in psychology research
quantifying redundancy for, 1.1, 1.2, 7.1, 7.2
quantizing speech for
symbols as unit for, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
in telephony, prl.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5
Turing’s approach to, 7.1, 7.2
see also bit(s)
Medawar, Peter
meme(s); memetics
catchphrases as, 11.1, 11.2
chain letters as, 11.1-1.1
conceptual origins of, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4
definition of, prl.1, 11.1, 11.2
disease analogy for, 11.1, 11.2
effects
forms of, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3
genetic model of
humans as vehicles for
ideas as
images as
as living structures
mission of
music as
replication through imitation
scholarly research on, 11.1, 11.2
transmission of, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3
memory
aids in oral literature
computer, cost of
evolution of information technology and, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
in machine functions
in maze-navigating machine, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
meme strategies
psychology research on, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
quantum erasure of
writing and, 2.1, 2.2
Menabrea, Luigi
Mencken, H. L., 3.1, 11.1
Mendel, Gregor
Mercury: or the Secret and Swift Messenger (Wilkins)
Merlin, John
Mermin, David, 13.1n, 13.2
Merrill, James
messenger RNA, 11.1, 13.1
meta-language
Metalogicon
metamathematics, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 10.1, 12.1
metaphor
“Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery, On a” (Babbage), 4.1, 4.2
Metropolis, Nicholas
microfilm
microstates, 9.1, 9.2
Middleton, Thomas
Milbanke, Anna Isabella
Milgram, Stanley
Miller, George, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Miller, Jonathan, 2.1, 2.2
Million Random Digits, A, 12.1, 12.2
Milton, John, 3.1, 11.1
Mingjia (School of Names)
Minsky, Marvin
Miot de Melito, Count n
Mitchell, David
mondegreens, 3.1, 3.2
Monod, Jacques
Monte Carlo simulations, 11.1, 12.1
Moore, Francis
Moore, Gordon
Morse, Samuel F. B., 1.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
Morse code, prl.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 5.1, 6.1, 11.1, 12.1
mortality tables, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
Mulcaster, Richard
multiplexed signals
Mumford, Lewis
Munch, Edvard
Murray, James, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6
music, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
Nagel, Ernest
naming, 2.1, 14
.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6
Napier, John, 4.1, 4.2
Napoleon Bonaparte, 5.1, 5.2
National Defense Research Committee
natural history, 14.1, 14.2
natural philosophy, prl.1, prl.2, 3.1
natural selection, 5.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1; see also evolution
Nature, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, epl.1
Nautical Almanac, 4.1, 4.2
navigation, number tables for, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
needle telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
networks
applications of Shannon’s theories, 8.1, 8.2
barbed-wire telephone
biological analogies for electrical
cloud processing
clustering in
collective judgment and behavior enabled by, epl.1, epl.2
e-mail
emergence of global consciousness, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
English poetry
global information in, epl.1, epl.2
science of
small-world, epl.1, epl.2
spread of memes through
telegraphic, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.1
telephone, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4
see also cyberspace; Internet
Neugebauer, Otto
neurophysiology
analog versus digital descriptions of, 8.1, 8.2
concept of human global organism, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
feedback systems in, 8.1, 8.2
human–computer comparison, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
metaphors for electrical systems
neurosis
New Logic, 6.1, 6.2
Newman, James R.
Newton, Isaac, prl.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 6.1, 9.1, 11.1, 12.1, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3
noise
in biological systems
coded messages as, 7.1, 7.2
error correction to overcome, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1
limits of information transmission, 8.1, 8.2
in modeling of communication systems, 6.1, 7.1
noisy coding theorem
predictability
problems of telephony, prl.1, prl.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1
quantification of
scientific study of, 6.1, 6.2
source of, 6.1, 7.1
as subject of psychology research, 8.1, 8.2
Wiener’s studies of, 8.1, 8.2
Nollet, Abbé Jean-Antoine
noosphere
Notions sur la machine analytique (Menabrea)
nucleic acid, 10.1, 10.2; see also deoxyribonucleic acid, 10.1
nucleotides, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4
numbers
computability question, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5
concept of normality in, 12.1, 12.2
earliest written, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
information in, 12.1, 12.2
interesting, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
meaning of
printed tables of, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
products of Babbage’s work with, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
table of differences, 4.1, 4.2
as universal language, 6.1, 6.2
see also mathematics
Nyquist, Harry, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1
observer effects on subject of observation, 7.1, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5