Information Meaning

"And now we come to the third keystone, information.⁸ Information may be thought of as a reduction in entropy—as the ingredient that distinguishes an orderly, structured system from the vast set of random, useless ones.⁹ Imagine pages of random characters tapped out by a monkey at a typewriter, or a stretch of white noise from a radio tuned between channels, or a screenful of confetti from a corrupted computer file. Each of these objects can take trillions of different forms, each as boring as the next. But now suppose that the devices are controlled by a signal that arranges the characters or sound waves or pixels into a pattern that correlates with something in the world: the Declaration of Independence, the opening bars of “Hey Jude,” a cat wearing sunglasses. We say that the signal transmits information about the Declaration or the song or the cat.¹⁰" — 2018, Steven Pinker, “Chapter 2: Entro, Evo, Info”, in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Penguin, →ISBN:

"And ſo much yet did this contagion breake foorth to the harme of manie Inhabitants of his Towne, who affected the Vicont, that they which were encountred by the kinges troupes, (information being geuen of their demeanor) they were iudged to be of good prize, and voluntarely paid ranſom." — 1592, Henry IV of France, A Discourse of the Great Overthrow, page 2:

"It is usual to obtain by means of a census a good deal of information beyond the bare fact of the number of persons whose existence is, for the purposes of the census, taken cognizance of. Part of this information is obtained for purposes connected with the administration of the state, such as that contained in replies to questions as to the religion, profession, &c., of the individuals numbered." — (Can we date this quote?), Wynnard Hooper, “Population”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] , Ninth edition, Volume XI, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 513, column 2:

"By accessing personal electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, Chinese connected software applications can access and capture vast swaths of information from users, including sensitive personally identifiable information and private information. This data collection threatens to provide the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information—which would permit China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, and build dossiers of personal information." — 2021, Donald J. Trump, Executive Order 13971 (Addressing the Threat Posed by Applications and Other Software Developed or Controlled by Chinese Companies):

"At this time a great uneasiness became manifest among the Castilians, and it was rumored that Magallanes was going to deliver them over to the Portuguese; and they resolved to mutiny and seize the ships. Magallanes upon obtaining information of this was sorely grieved. He summoned the guilty ones before him one by one, but they flatly refused to come." — 1903–1909, “Extracto de una carta (Extract of a letter from the Indies)”, in Emma Helen Blair, James Alexander Robertson, editors, The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, volume 1, pages 297-299: