Although the word "information" has existed for a long time, by the 1930s and 1940s, the word "information" was widely used. Entering the 21st century, network information has become one of the most frequently used words in our life, such as information science, information technology, information system, information economy, information resources, information society Network construction Etc. Information has penetrated into all aspects of social politics, economy, culture, science and technology and our daily life. More and more people attach importance to information. The wider the use of information and the deeper the research on information, the more diverse and profound people's understanding of information will be. Information burning defines that scholars are in different research purposes and perspectives, and research leaders have different views. So far, there is no unified standard for information to be universally recognized by all walks of life. Here are some representative definitions of information.
Philosophers believe that information is the basis of human understanding of the world. Mathematicians believe that information is a kind of probability. Physicists believe that information is "Bing Qi". Communication scientists believe that information is a description of uncertainty. Experts in the field of books and information believe that information is the concept, fact and treatise that can be spread, recorded, published and distributed in various forms.
Information is information, neither matter nor energy (Norbert Wiener. 1948). Information is the uneven distribution of matter and energy sites in time and space (Eepr. 1971). Information is the reflection of changes and characteristics of various things in the objective world (Huang Zongzhong). Information is something that can be used to eliminate uncertainty (Shen Nong). Information is the state and mode of the movement of things (Zhong Yixin). Information is the data, news and knowledge obtained in the process of observation or research (Merriam Webster Dictionary ". Information is the things, news and knowledge talked about (Oxford Dictionary)). Information is the knowledge of the things observed ((Ci Yuan". Information is the report "Ci Hai" that is unknown to the news receiver in advance) Information is the complexity of the system. Information is the manifestation of interaction between things. Museum interest is the universal attribute of matter and the universal form of things. Information is something that acts on human sensory organs. Information is the content of communication transmission. Information is the raw material of knowledge processing. Information is information. Information is a signal. Information is data. Information is information. Information is knowledge
The national standard of our country (Information and Literature T. Basic Vocabulary Terms) (GB4894-1985) defines information as "information is a way, form or movement state of material existence, and is also a universal attribute of things. General indications and meanings contained in messages can reduce the uncertainty of events described by messages." Domestic experts, after comparing the definitions of Qiao Xi from various schools at home and abroad, prefer the explanation of Zhong Yixin, a Chinese scholar. In the year of ILIT, Zhong Yixin believed in the book "Principles of Information Science" that information is the state and way of things' movement and an attribute of matter. Here, "things" generally refers to all possible research objects, including the material objects of the external world, as well as the spiritual phenomena of the subjective world: "movement" generally refers to all changes in the meaning of fatigue, including mechanical movement, chemical movement, thinking movement and social movement; "movement mode" refers to the process and law of things' movement in time; The "movement state" is the shape and situation of the event movement in space. Zhong Yixin also pointed out that information is different from messages. Messages are just the shell of information, while information is the core of messages: information is different from signals, signals are the carriers of information, and information is the content loaded by signals: information is different from data. Data is a form of recording information. The same information can also be expressed in words or images. Information is also different from intelligence and knowledge
In a word, the definition of "information is the state and way of things' movement" has the greatest convergence. It not only covers all other information definitions, but also can be transformed into all other information definitions by introducing constraints.
