What is information in technology? This question interests many. Let's start with the fact that this is an abstract concept, but a real one. A person forms his own idea of what it is in a particular situation. A technical system receives information as signals of the nature to which its sensors, input and control devices are tuned.
Creating a technical system, a person narrows the concept to the limit that is sufficient for this system to work and manage it. A person expands his knowledge and skills, trying to perceive information, analyze it and make decisions.
Man and technology
To create a technical system, a person uses information. The choice of what to use depends on the purpose, scope, social significance, and many other factors. Information "determines" what should be created and how it will be created. Result: the technical system "accepts"the minimum required amount of specific information, data at the input and produces the required result at the output.
To organize his behavior, a person uses information, improves his knowledge and skills, and, making a decision, raises his knowledge and skills to a higher level.
Using technical systems at home, at work or on vacation, a person imagines how they can be improved, what should be added to the functionality, how the logic of technical devices should be changed and does it. Here, information is understood as data and signals at the input, control tools and control devices in the process, data or products at the output.
Man creates technical systems and manages them to achieve the desired result. Any technical system, even a hammer, chisel or screwdriver, “evolves”, and the dynamics of this development is determined by a person, perceiving and analyzing the flows of information, data, but not necessarily exclusively on hammers, chisels or screwdrivers.
Information that is not directly related to the technical system may be directly related to it. This is a feature of intelligence: the transformation of knowledge from one application to another.
Technical systems and people
When a person is driving a car, a motorcycle, an airplane or a spaceship, technology controls the person. The forces of nature and objective physical laws limit the will and ability of a person to perceive information and apply it.
Knowledge and skills helpthe driver to make the right decision in a difficult traffic situation and avoid an accident. But before making the right decision, several vehicles will “teach” the driver the correct behavior on the road for several years. Knowing the rules of the road is not enough, you need to feel the car and be able to understand everything that it “has to say.”
The Internet can hardly be called a technical system. It is more like a conglomerate of technology and society, but in any case, this is a system created once by a person, received an objectively justified right to independent development.
Modern high technology is actually not as high as the authoritative conglomerate of specialists and engineers declares. In any field of application of knowledge, there is a lack of development of science and practice. To this day, a person perceives, analyzes and uses various information, data to create rigid, reinforced concrete structures. In technology, information is usually understood as known, demanded and studied. Anything new is subject to research.
Machine, conveyor or washing powder production; a nuclear power plant or a spaceship - this is understandable. Here, everything must accurately perform a specific functionality, everything must have the correct forms and follow the exact algorithms of work. But programming and information technology cannot be driven into a rigid formal framework.
Real life: family and work
In technology, information is usually understood as signals, messages, environmental influences. By creatingtools and equipment, designing interiors and household items, building roads and communications, a person is guided by accumulated experience and technical documentation. The range of information used is supplemented and refined by the knowledge and skills of a particular specialist (team of specialists).
The purpose of creating a product for domestic use or use in production is formed on the basis of what has already been done and what is needed at a given level of life (household, family) and under the current production conditions (equipment, organization of activities).
There is no particular difference between the use of information in everyday life or at work. The topics, content and structure of the flow of information, data, which leads to the adoption of the necessary decision, the manufacture of the necessary item or the performance of the necessary action, differ.
The life and life of one specialist has an impact on another. They don't have to live or work nearby. The information flow, like air, spreads quickly and is “absorbed” instantly. If there is a desire and an objective necessity, he will definitely find his consumer.
Life works like this: information flows circulate outside the consciousness of a particular person, but everyone receives from them what he is able to understand and what he needs. Information and its recipient always find each other, and the source always "radiates" it into the common space, even when it has a specific addressee in mind.
Virtual space: knowledge and skills
Most people swim in the oceaninformation the way it is. This is fine. There is a family, children, work, obligations. Something you need to read, something you can hear on the street. Gossip, news and a "productive" wave of "thoughtful" spam from mass media producers. You need to filter the information flow. It is important to accept only what is essential, objective and necessary.
The case when information is understood as information with novelty is a dissertation, term paper or diploma work. The consumer of the information given here is a person who needs to show other people (scientific council, examination committee) that work has been done on the analysis of sources and works of predecessors. As a result, the novelty and relevance of one's own work or research is shown.
When information is understood as information about what competitors have done - this is industrial espionage or an attempt to collect certain data and design a better product than is on the market. There is a goal to improve the functionality, appearance, reliability or other qualities of the product.
If in technology information is understood as messages, then we are talking about how to improve their transmission, integrity, speed or other characteristics. If the message refers to a person (telephone, Internet), it is symbolic, visual or audio data. This is volume, one quality. If the message is addressed to a robot or machine, it is a signal, a digital code, a minimum volume and a maximum speed. Message, message - strife, but the applied knowledge and skills are equivalent in all cases.
A specialist does not float (like an ordinary person) in an ocean of information, he is surrounded by a system of filters that selectively and accurately present the necessary data to him. Information flows in the mind of a specialist are data, that is, a formal representation of information.
Classic Information Process
In technology, information is understood as something specific: impulsive or continuous. The terms "signal", "data", or "control" are more commonly used.
The machine for the primary processing of wood is a bed, a material fastening mechanism, a set of saws and two buttons: on and off. A more advanced model has the ability to control the sawing process, you can change the direction of movement of the material, the thickness of the board, the quality of processing, and so on.
There are many models of woodworking machines and all of them have specific functionality, strictly defined capabilities. Information required for the machine to work: the position of the working parts and the set of buttons (levers) that initiate specific processes.
The car assembly line is multifunctional. Modern automotive manufacturing has shifted workers from the assembly line to control operators. Only robots, multifunctional machines and machine tools remained on the assembly lines. Modern automotive production can assemble different cars with certain changes in the production cycle. Here, the information process lies within a wider range than with a woodworking machine.
Finance Departmentlarge corporation is equipped with computer equipment, has access to the Internet, and qualified specialists work in it. If we do not take into account social relations that are irrelevant and characteristic of any work team, especially a creative one, then the information process to achieve the desired result is a struggle for priorities and the value of knowledge (skills) of employees. Everyone strives to make a significant contribution to the common cause.
In all cases: the information process is controlled and managed. If the task is to optimize and reliably evaluate each decision, it must be transformed into a sequence of actions that can be visually observed. A solution of this kind was implemented quite a long time ago. There are numerous job automation software that perform both logical and mathematical calculations.
The information process can be observed, controlled, managed. Knowledge is enough to perform traditional work of this kind, but one should never forget about chance and an external factor. Very often, new ideas are not connected with the classical tradition and lie outside the ordinary information processes. To notice this in time is very promising and productive.
Formalization and accuracy of data
"Information" and "data" are synonymous words (in a sense). But the first is abstraction in dynamics. The second is real structures and content. In technology, information is understood as something that is relevant (in demand), and they call it data, messages, signals, a control cycle. Atwhen creating a machine, conveyor, car or spacecraft, technical documentation is used - the result of decades of applying the knowledge of many specialists, experience in testing and practical use.
To build an airplane or a ship today, you need to follow a lot of provisions that few people review, optimize or apply at a qualitatively higher level. Only the design of the ship, the cabin, the number of passengers, navigation devices, and the like are changing. Probably in vain, but it’s hard to do otherwise.
In technology, information is understood as an answer. The test signal and the response to it are unambiguously linked and cannot be changed. If it worked on all signals and the expected responses were received, the device, apparatus, etc. can be used further. Maintenance or repair can be delayed.
In programming, everything can be dynamic. This is the essential difference. But programming today is a superstructure on the "reinforced concrete yesterday". In engineering, information is understood as an answer that is accurate, reliable, and unambiguous. In the program, it can be different: it all depends on the initial data and the level of foresight of the programmer. All possible options are not taken into account and the program will behave as "it wants to". But that's less of a problem.
It's sad that the dynamic possibilities of programming are offset by classical ideas about information and its processing. It has become so habitual to use the "experience of ancestors" in its original form that to eliminate the inertia of a modern developervirtually impossible.
The developer uses libraries, modules, developments of past years, various specialists such as a machine tool, equipment, conveyor, and does not even think that much can be rewritten differently. Knowledge and skills are already enough to bring the operating system, tool, browser or other program to the consumer in a qualitatively new state.
Objectivity and reliability
In technology, information is understood as: choose one answer, and it will be correct. You just need to look at the correct data. It's not hard to make a decision here.
There are always a lot of answers in the search results from a popular search engine, and there is nothing to choose from. If in real life, in real production, there is equipment, there are questions about its operation, then get an adequate answer from a variety of possible options. There are accompanying documentation, technical descriptions, maintenance regulations.
On the Internet, a lot of people write what. There are many web resources that manipulate information, attract rewriters and write about the same thing, but in different words. Very few people indicate the exact date of creation of data, their source, author, and give objective information: what can be trusted and what not.
In information theory, information is understood as information that has novelty. But what is it? What is novelty? What about information theory? What is the understanding of novelty when information theory is an even more abstract concept than information itself.
About informationthere are exactly as many opinions as there are acting authorities. If we take into account the opinions of scientists who are far from practice, if we look at the opinions of specialists who are competent in one way or another, then we can objectively say: there is a theory of information, but as a theory and as a science it has not yet been formed.
The credibility of the information flow taken from a book is much higher than that obtained from an "authoritative" Internet source.
Data out of view
There is nothing easier to say: in information theory, information is understood as information, messages, data, signals, waves and fields. Everything will be correct, including such a source as fields. But the term field is physics. This is a special informational phenomenon that (magnetic, gravitational, spiritual, etc.) cannot be seen.
The flight of a particle, for the sake of which physicists build kilometer accelerators, powerful colliders, no one has ever seen and will not see soon. Actually, a particle, like an atom and an electron, is a product of fantasy, the result of a theory. The dispute between waves and quanta is the best proof that the information space in physics is still very far from perfect. In technology, information is understood as perceived and observable signals, data, messages.
Michurin's periodic table, experiments and real results - a fact: coherent, logical, practical. But is it really?
Astronomers have described the Galaxy, compiled registers of stars and filed a dossier on each. leaked to the press every yearinformation about aliens, dangerous meteorites and the threat to life on earth. This is the "universal" mentality. Physicists counted dozens of varieties of elementary particles and gave each a portrait with characteristics.
If electricity and magnetism can be really measured and used, then with gravity, elementary particles, black holes and DNA, everything is much more complicated.
It is generally impossible to detect what another medium (psychic) sees. Meanwhile, mystical moments are reality. This is also information and it is also characterized by reliability and objectivity.
Information over information
Mathematics is not only a wonderful science, but also really practical. Probability theory is desirable only for scientists who are sincerely passionate about it. But her results are noteworthy.
In technology, information is understood as real data that is used to manage, present results or are the content of the information process. Analysis of a set of data by analytical methods - new information, new data.
Probability theory is less original and more practical than Einstein's ideas. She gives results. The fact that in technology information is understood by its developers, producers or consumers is one thing, it is apparently applicable and in demand. The theory of probability for each of these positions can provide new data, new information.
Analysts, analyzing the multiple applications of a device, product, machine tool, food product, convincingly show its qualities and properties that are visible only on a massive scale.
The reliability of the machine isthe result of applying the theory of probability is cheaper and more practical than years of testing. Mathematical or physical calculations are:
- tire reliability and vehicle traffic safety;
- exact satellite launch into orbit;
- ship buoyancy guarantee;
- stable work on the stock exchange;
- many other uses.
Here information is defined by other information. In fact, both exist initially, just with the help of a mathematical or physical method, you can see something more. And, by the way, the elementary particle too.
Information security
The information processes of a large corporation need to be protected. The state protects its information interests, and data leakage from a warship can lead to its death.
Information is like a two-faced Janus:
- it exists and is accessible to everyone who can perceive and use it, has the correct tools for this;
- she is not visible, not audible and not tangible. Even with precision instruments and mathematical instruments.
The second position is a characteristic feature of a person's knowledge and skills. No knowledge, no visibility. What is understood in technology as information is an already solved problem, a working device, a machine tool, a conveyor, a technology. But what a person does not yet know and does not understand is a wall behind which you can hide anything.
Information that can radically change the world or life on earth is hidden by its very nature. The best example is nuclear energy. On the theory and practice of militaryand the peaceful use of the atom, many scientists and politicians had a hand in it. Several states conducted research in parallel. The result is a relatively peaceful entry of the atom into peaceful life on the Planet.
It's hard to imagine the consequences if nuclear energy were in the hands of one person or group of people seeking complete power over the Planet. But that didn't happen.
Electricity and magnetism are fields in demand, applied and relatively well studied. The gravitational field is only calculations, taking into account the gravitational factor. Man has not yet learned to use gravity.
The nature of things and phenomena is open, and information is available. But the level of accessibility and "visibility" here is equivalent to the level of knowledge and skills that a person has.
