Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Information and Intelligence
Wisdom is only a comparative quality, it will not bear
a single definition
Marques of Halifax,
Miscellaneous thoughts and reflections late 17th century.
2.1
Introduction
The key to understanding intelligence is 'information', since it is information that
is the raw material used to gain insight. So we need to appreciate 'information' in a
very precise way. The next section will explore a formal definition of 'information'
to see if this will help us. It may also give us a different perception of intelligence.
2.2
Information
One of the important consequences of insight is the formation of a hypothesis that has
been triggered by a puzzle, as I have illustrated in Chap. 1. In general, hypotheses
are propositions that express constraints, laws or rules about the world. From a
pragmatic point of view we can say,
hypotheses are useful if they make the world “a
less surprising place”
(after Peirce
1958
,
1966
).
It so happens that independently to Peirce, a measure of surprise had already been
derived from communication theory (Shannon and Weaver first printed in the Bell
System Technical Journal in 1948 and published in topic form in
1964
). The problem
they were trying to resolve was getting some kind of measurement in communication
engineering. This measure should provide a precise assessment and comparison of
any non-perfect communication systems. They needed a way of asking, “How good is
this communication system?” In particular, they wanted a measure for such systems
so that their performance and limitations could be predicted; a measure similar to that
of horsepower for engines, where the limits of speed and acceleration can be defined.
The model of communication or paradigm they had in mind was the transmission
of Morse code. A schematic diagram of the components of a their idea of a typical
communication system is shown in Fig.
2.1
.
Thus if someone transmits a message that consists of string of digits (or letters)
such as:
