The Information

A History, a Theory, a Flood

v3.1
  • 3.9 (16 ratings) ·
  • 59 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 23 Have read
Not in Library

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 3.9 (16 ratings) ·
  • 59 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 23 Have read

Buy this book

Last edited by bitnapper
April 2, 2023 | History

The Information

A History, a Theory, a Flood

v3.1
  • 3.9 (16 ratings) ·
  • 59 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading
  • 23 Have read

From the invention of scripts and alphabets to the long misunderstood "talking drums" of Africa, James Gleick tells the story of information technologies that changed the very nature of human consciousness. He also provides portraits of the key figures contributing to the inexorable development of our modern understanding of information, including Charles Babbage, Ada Byron, Samuel Morse, Alan Turing, and Claude Shannon.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
416

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Information
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
2011, Knopf Doubleday Pub. Group
electronic resource : in English - v3.1
Cover of: The Information
The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
2011, Pantheon Books
in English

Add another edition?

Book Details


Table of Contents

Drums that talk
Persistence of the word
Two wordbooks
To throw the powers of thought into wheel-work
A nervous system for the Earth
New wires, new logic
Information theory
The informational turn
Entropy and its demons
Life's own code
Into the meme pool
The sense of randomness
Information is physical
After the flood
New news every day.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Published in
New York
Copyright Date
2011

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
020.9
Library of Congress
Z665 .G547 2011eb, Z665 .G547 2011

The Physical Object

Format
[electronic resource] :
Pagination
1 online resource (416 p.) :
Number of pages
416

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL25570591M
Internet Archive
informationhisto00libg
ISBN 10
0307379574
ISBN 13
9780307379573
OCLC/WorldCat
707742879, 868832462

Work Description

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood begins with the tale of colonial European explorers and their fascination with African talking drums and their observed use to send complex and widely understood messages back and forth between villages far apart, and over even longer distances by relay. The book then covers informational implications of technologies from drum signaling to the long distance telephone.

Starting with symbolic written language, The Information examines the history of intellectual insights central to the development of information theory, detailing key figures responsible such as Claude Shannon, Charles Babbage, Ada Byron, Samuel Morse, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins and John Archibald Wheeler.

Links outside Open Library

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
April 2, 2023 Edited by bitnapper Merge works (MRID: 55127)
January 4, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 19, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 16, 2022 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 15, 2010 Created by ImportBot initial import