MODULE 2. Information. Information sources. Working with information sources
Theory... Information. Types, storage, search, use of information. Information sources. Rules for compiling a bibliographic list. Working with information sources.
goal: to form ideas about information, its types, sources, features of storage, search and use.
Tasks:
1. Consider the concept and types of information
2. Understand the sources and carriers of information
3. Learn the types, storage, search, use of information
4. To form ideas about working with information sources
5. Learn the rules for compiling a bibliographic list
Concept and types of information
Information - a general scientific concept that includes a body of knowledge about nature, society, man and thinking.
The knowledge gained by humanity is recorded in books, textbooks, teaching aids and other documents.
People deal with many types of information. Information is subdivided into socio-political, socio-economic, pedagogical, scientific and technical, etc.
Communication of people with each other at home and at school, at university, at work and on the street is the transfer of information. The same information can be transmitted and received in different ways. So, to find your way to a museum in an unfamiliar city, you can ask a passer-by, get help from the information desk, try to figure it out yourself using the city plan, or consult a guidebook. When we listen to the teacher's explanation, read books or newspapers, watch TV news, visit museums and exhibitions - at this time we receive information.
A teacher's story or a friend's story, television broadcast, telegram, letter, oral communication, etc. are all examples of information transfer. Receiving and transforming information is a necessary condition for the life of any organism. Even the simplest single-celled organisms constantly perceive and use information, for example, about temperature and chemical composition of the environment to choose the most favorable conditions for existence. Living beings are able not only to perceive information from the environment with the help of their senses, but also to exchange it among themselves.
A person also perceives information using the senses, and languages \u200b\u200bare used to exchange information between people. During the development of human society, many such languages \u200b\u200bhave emerged. First of all, these are native languages \u200b\u200b(Russian, English, etc.) "which are spoken by numerous peoples of the world.
Sources and carriers of information
Sources of informationare various documents.
Under the documents it is necessary to understand not only traditional written sources (books, magazines, brochures, newspapers, etc.), but also other objects that contain information intended for storage and transmission to the user. These are handwritten materials, audiovisual aids (sound recordings, films and video films, etc.), visual aids, collection materials.
A document intended for the dissemination of the information contained in it, having undergone editorial and publishing processing, obtained by printing or embossing, printed independently, having output information, is called edition ... The edition can be not only printed text, but also combined, i.e. include recordings of sounds (records, tape or discs), images on other material media (floppy disks, computer disks, slides, tapes, etc.)
Currently, most of the documents are published on paper. It is very expensive, takes up a lot of space, and is very difficult to find data.
At the same time, there are also such information carriers as microfilms, microcards, microfiche, the capacity and recording density of which is much higher than on paper.
Types, storage, search, use of information
A person stores the received information in his head. The human brain is a huge storage of information. Notepad or notebook, your diary, school notebooks, library, museum, cassette with recordings of your favorite tunes, videotapes - all these are examples of information storage.
Information can be processed: translation of a text from English into Russian and vice versa, calculating the sum for given terms, solving a problem, coloring pictures or contour maps - all these are examples of information processing. All of you loved to color in your coloring books. It turns out that at that time you were engaged in an important process - information processing, a black and white drawing was turned into color.
Information can even be lost. Let's say Ivanov Dima forgot his diary at home and therefore wrote down his homework on a piece of paper. But, playing at recess, he made an airplane out of it and launched it. Arriving home, Dima was unable to do his homework, he lost information. Now he needs to either try to remember what he was asked, or call a classmate to get the necessary information, or go to school with homework unfulfilled.
The development of science and education has led to the rapid growth of the amount of information and human knowledge. If at the beginning of the last century the total amount of human knowledge doubled approximately every fifty years, then in subsequent years - every five years. The way out of this situation was the creation of computers, which greatly accelerated and automated the information processing process.
The first electronic computer "ENIAC" was developed in the USA in 1946. In our country, the first computer was created in 1951 under the leadership of Academician V.A. Lebedev.
Currently, computers are used to process not only numerical, but also other types of information. Today, a computer is on the desktop of a specialist in any profession. It allows you to contact by special mail anywhere in the world, connect to the funds of large libraries without leaving your home, use encyclopedias, study new sciences and acquire various skills using training programs and simulators. He helps the fashion designer to design patterns, the publisher to compose text and illustrations, the artist to create new paintings, and the composer to music. An expensive experiment can be completely calculated and simulated on a computer.
Receiving, storing, transferring and processing information is information processes ... The role of information processes in our life is great and every year it becomes more and more tangible. Therefore, the human society of our time is called the information society. People living in an information society should be able to use its main tool, and first of all, a universal information machine - a computer.
Let us consider in more detail the main information processes: search, collection (storage), transmission, processing and use of information.
Search for information.
You and I very often have to search for information: look for a translation of a foreign word in a dictionary, a telephone number in a telephone directory, a train departure time in a train schedule, a required formula in a mathematics textbook, a route on a subway map, and a library catalog information about the required book. There are many more examples. All these are the processes of searching for information on external media: books, diagrams, tables, card files.
Information retrieval methods:
Direct observation;
Communication with experts on the issue of interest to you;
Reading relevant literature;
Watching video, TV programs;
Listening to radio broadcasts, audio cassettes;
Working in libraries and archives;
Request to information systems, databases and computer data banks;
Other methods.
Collection and storage of information.
Collecting information is not an end in itself. In order for the information received to be used, and many times, it is necessary to store it.
Information storage is a way of distributing information in space and time. The way of storing information depends on its medium (book - library, painting - museum, photography - album). The computer is designed for compact storage of information with the ability to quickly access it.
An information system is a repository of information, equipped with procedures for entering, searching and placing and issuing information. The presence of such procedures main feature information systems that distinguish them from simple accumulations of information materials. For example, a personal library, in which only its owner can navigate, is not an information system. In public libraries, the order of placement of books is always strictly defined. Thanks to him, the search and issuance of books, as well as the placement of new acquisitions, are standard, formalized procedures.
People store information either in their own memory (sometimes they say - "in the mind"), or on some kind of external media. Most often on paper.
The information that we remember is always available to us. For example, if you have memorized the multiplication table, then you do not need to look anywhere in order to answer the question: how much is five five? Each person remembers his home address, phone number, as well as addresses and phone numbers of loved ones. If you need an address or phone number that we do not remember, then we turn to the address book or to the telephone directory.
Human memory can be conditionally called operational. Here the word "operational" is synonymous with the word "fast". A person quickly reproduces the knowledge stored in his memory. We can still name our memory internal memory... Then the information stored on external media (in notebooks, reference books, encyclopedias, magnetic records) can be called our external memory.
A person often forgets something. Information on external media is stored longer and more reliably. It is with the help of external carriers that people pass on their knowledge from generation to generation.
Transfer of information.
In the process of transmitting information, the source and the receiver of information are necessarily involved: the first transmits information, the second receives it. Between them there is an information transfer channel - a communication channel.
Communication channel - aggregate technical devicesproviding signal transmission from source to destination.
Encoder - a device designed to convert the original message of the source to a form convenient for transmission.
Decoder - a device for converting an encoded message into the original one.
Human activities are always associated with the transfer of information.
In the process of transmission, information can be lost and distorted: distorted sound in the phone, atmospheric interference in the radio, distortion or darkening of the image in television, errors during transmission in the telegraph. These interference, or, as experts call them, noise, distort information. Fortunately, there is a science that develops ways to protect information - cryptology.
Data processing.
Information processing is the transformation of information from one type to another, carried out according to strict formal rules.
Information processing according to the "black box" principle is a process in which only input and output information is important and necessary for the user, but the rules by which the transformation takes place are not interested and are not taken into account.
A "black box" is a system in which only information at the input and output of this system is available to an external observer, and the structure and internal processes are unknown.
The process of processing information is not always associated with the receipt of any new information. For example, when translating a text from one language to another, information is processed that changes its form, but not the content.
The coding of information belongs to the same type of processing. Encoding is the transformation of the representation of information from one symbolic form to another, convenient for its storage, transmission or processing.
Another type of information processing is sorting it (sometimes they say - ordering). For example, you decide to write down the addresses and phone numbers of all your classmates on separate cards. In what order should these cards be folded so that later it would be convenient to search among them for the necessary information? Most likely, you will put them in alphabetical order by last name. In computer science, the organization of data according to some rule that connects it into a single whole is called structuring.
Use of information.
The information is used in making decisions.
The reliability, completeness, objectivity of the information received will provide you with the opportunity to make the right decision.
Your ability to communicate information clearly and easily will come in handy when communicating with others.
The ability to communicate, that is, to exchange information, becomes one of the main skills of a person in modern world.
Computer literacy implies:
Knowledge of the purpose and user characteristics of the main computer devices;
Knowledge of the main types software and types of user interfaces;
Ability to search, store, process text, graphic, numerical information using the appropriate software.
User information culture includes:
Understanding the patterns of information processes;
Knowledge of the basics of computer literacy;
Technical computer skills;
Effective use of the computer as a tool;
The habit of using a computer in a timely manner when solving problems from any field, based on the knowledge of computer technology;
Application of the information received in practice.
Working with information sources
Any research work is unthinkable without studying special literature. A qualified analysis of literary sources requires knowledge of certain rules for their search, the appropriate method of study and note taking.
The literature search can also continue in the process of acquaintance with the sources based on the study of the lists of used literature, usually given at the end of the book. When selecting the literature of interest, one must take into account the year of publication, the authority and popularity in science of the author of the book, the publishing house, the general direction of the work (determined at this stage by the title). The stage of selecting the appropriate literature should be accompanied by a bibliographic description of the source on special catalog cards or in a notebook. This is due to the fact that sometimes there is a need for repeated views of certain sources, as well as the need to create a personal card index, built on a certain thematic basis. All bibliographic descriptions must be strictly unified and comply with generally accepted rules.
The study of the literature is necessary for a clearer presentation of the research methodology and determination of general theoretical positions, as well as to identify the degree of scientific elaboration of this problem. It is always important to establish to what extent and how this problem is covered in general scientific works and special works on this issue, reflecting the results of relevant research.
Libraries are the main repositories of scientific and technical information. Therefore, in order to carry out a successful literature search, researchers need to correctly navigate the library funds.
Libraries are universal, scientific, technical, public and departmental. Literature on all branches of knowledge is collected in universal libraries. The branch libraries contain literature on the relevant specialty.
For schoolchildren, for research (project) activity, books, magazines and newspapers from the school and district libraries are generally sufficient.
In the event that the necessary information is not available in the specified libraries, then the necessary information should be ordered from the district library by interlibrary delivery.
When visiting a library, the first thing to do is consult a bibliographer. He will tell you in which catalog to look for a book or other printed publication.
When you receive a book, you must start reading it with an annotation. annotation - this a brief description of content, purpose, form and other features of the printed publication. The abstract can also include information about the author, contain explanatory or recommendatory text.
The student, after reading the annotation, may reveal that he needs only a few pages of the publication in question to work. Then he can order their photocopies and safely work with them at home.
Almost every library has a reading room. It contains the most valuable books, reference books, dictionaries, encyclopedias.
A great help for purposeful work in the library can be provided by appropriate catalogs , which are divided into three main types: alphabetical, systematic and subject. Each of them has a specific purpose, serves to answer only the relevant requests and is drawn up in accordance with GOST.
In the alphabetical catalog information about the literature available in the library is arranged in a single alphabetical order with the names of the authors or the titles of books (if the authors are not indicated in them). The alphabetical order is also preserved for the author's name and patronymic. Literature published in a language using Latin graphics, as a rule, is located in these catalogs after all publications in Russian.
Along with the alphabetical ones, systematic catalogs ... Descriptions of works in them are given by branches of science and technology. Departments and subsections of systematic catalogs are built in order from general to specific, which is fixed by special indices - a combination of letters or numbers. Divisions of systematic catalogs often have at the beginning lists of their divisions, with links and notes that allow you to navigate in a large array of catalog cards.
A number of large scientific and technical libraries are being created) subject catalogs. They reflect more specific issues and group descriptions of literature under the item names in alphabetical order. In addition to the main types of catalogs discussed above, there are also catalogs periodicpublications received by the library, or catalogs of magazine and newspaper articles. When working with literature, one should take into account that the materials of journals and collections contain more recent data than books and monographs, since the latter are being prepared and published for a long time. At the same time, the material is presented in more detail in monographs and books.
There is also an electronic catalog now. Digital catalogue is a bibliographic base in machine-readable form, including elements of a bibliographic record to reflect the content of documents and elements indicating the storage address of the document (ciphers or library signals). The presence of these elements in the database allows the Electronic Catalog to perform the functions of all types of catalogs:
· By appointment - reading, office, topographic;
· By the way of grouping - alphabetical, systematic and subject;
· By type of reflected documents - for books, magazines and articles, etc .; electronic catalog automated library
· By the reflected funds - Electronic catalog of one library or consolidated Electronic catalog.
Most of the required documents are concentrated in state archives. In our country there are central archives of federal significance, republican, regional and regional archives. A number of scientific and educational institutions and organizations also have their archives.
Documents in archives are deposited and stored in funds, which are divided into inventories. The inventory is based on the chronological principle or structural subdivisions of the fund-creator's institution. The admission of researchers to archives and the procedure for working in them are governed by special rules, common to which is the obligatory submission of a request from a scientific or educational institution to allow a specific person to work in a specific archive on a relevant topic and a plan signed by the researcher.
When selecting documents in the archive, one should, first of all, familiarize oneself with its accounting and reference apparatus: the consolidated reference fund of the archive or a guide to the archive, often with annotations to the most significant funds; catalogs and lists of affairs of funds, which are called storage units. After establishing the name of the fund, the materials of which are necessary for the work, an application is drawn up in the form available in each archive.
The documents received upon application must be carefully reviewed and their value and need for further study identified. The content of documents that are very important for work and have a small volume of documents should be written out in full, simultaneously indicating the name of the fund, inventory number, case number, storage unit and sheet. In some cases, you can limit yourself to brief extracts of individual facts, also accompanying them with a mandatory reference to the fund, inventory, case and sheet.
Working in the archive is an important link in many scientific and scientific-methodological research, therefore, acquaintance with the organization, methodology and technique of this business can be considered an integral part of the general scientific training of students.
Sources of evidence - these are certain carriers of evidentiary information, i.e. information about the facts to be proved in the course of the proceedings.
Sources of evidence include: testimony of a suspect, accused, victim, witness, expert opinion, material evidence, protocols of investigative actions, court hearings and operational-search measures, other documents and other media obtained in the manner prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Code.
Suspect's testimony - this is information provided to the suspect in writing or orally during an interrogation conducted during a preliminary investigation or inquiry, as well as during the performance of other investigative actions with his participation (Article 91 of the CCP).
The suspect has the right to testify about the suspicion against him, as well as about other circumstances known to him that are important in the case, and the evidence available in the case. Thus, the subject of the suspect's testimony is the circumstances that give rise to suspicion, as well as any other information relevant to the case.
The testimony of such a participant in the criminal process as the accused is close to the testimony of a suspect in nature and procedural form of fixation.
Defendant's testimony - this is information provided by the accused verbally or in writing during interrogation, as well as during the performance of other investigative actions with his participation (Article 92 of the CCP).
For the accused and the suspect, giving evidence is a right, not an obligation. They are not liable for knowingly giving false testimony or refusing to testify, which is one of the guarantees of ensuring the right to defend themselves.
The testimony of the accused is of a dual nature. They are, on the one hand, a source of evidence, and on the other, a means of defense against charges brought against them.
The testimony of the accused is usually divided into:
1) testimony, which contains a confession of his guilt (full or partial);
2) testimony in which this guilt is denied;
3) testimony against other persons, the so-called slander, that is, knowingly false testimony against another person.
The confession by the accused of his guilt can be used as the basis for the accusation only if the confession is confirmed by the totality of the available evidence in the case.
The accused's denial of their guilt is also subject to careful and comprehensive verification. All the arguments of the accused must either be refuted or confirmed. If neither one nor the other succeeded, and doubts remain about the presence (absence) of any circumstances, then they are interpreted in favor of the accused.
One of the types of testimony of the suspect and the accused is their testimony against other persons, the so-called slander. Often, the suspect and the accused try to shift their guilt, in whole or in part, onto others. This is one of the remedies and cannot entail any liability.
The issue is resolved differently when testimony against other persons is given by the suspect or the accused on the facts, circumstances that are not included in the accusation, and the involvement in which the interrogated is not verified at all. In such cases, the suspect or accused must be warned that he will testify as a witness and, therefore, may be criminally liable.
The assessment of the testimony of the suspect and the accused is carried out on a general basis, that is, from the point of view of their relevance, admissibility, completeness and reliability. When evaluating such indications, you should always consider:
The special procedural position of the accused in the criminal process, his interest in the outcome of the case;
The fact that he is not responsible for false testimony;
The accused is not obliged to prove his innocence.
Verification of the testimony of the accused (suspect) can be carried out by:
Comparative analysis of the testimony of one person;
Comparison of the factual data contained in the testimony with other evidence available in the case;
The production of investigative (judicial) actions to compare their results with the testimony being verified.
When checking and evaluating the testimony of an accused who pleads guilty, it is necessary to find out whether the confession of guilt is a consequence of self-incrimination.
The accused's denial of his guilt and the corresponding testimony require careful verification. Not only the accused, who actually committed a crime, but also the innocent can deny his guilt.
When evaluating testimony against other persons, it is necessary to determine the motive by which the interrogated was guided. The most common motives for false testimony are: fear of responsibility for what they have done, fear of punishment; the hope that the crime will not be solved; concealment of accomplices; fear that the intimate aspects of life will be announced.
If the accused (suspect) has changed his testimony (in whole or in relation to certain circumstances), then it is necessary to determine the reliability of each of them.
Witness testimony - this is information provided by a witness orally or in writing during an interrogation conducted at a preliminary investigation, inquiry or court session, as well as during other investigative actions with his participation (Article 94 of the CCP).
The law defines the circle of persons who cannot be interrogated as a witness (part 2 of article 60 of the CCP).
The subject of the witness's testimony is determined by law. In accordance with Part 2 of Art. 94 of the CPC, a witness may be questioned about any relevant circumstances, including the identity of the suspect, the accused, the victim and his relationship with them and other witnesses.
The testimony of the witness must be based on certain sources. Information provided by a witness cannot serve as evidence if he cannot indicate the source of his knowledge.
Testimony of a witness has evidentiary value only if it contains specific information about the event under investigation.
Verification of the testimony of a witness is carried out by analyzing their content, their completeness, consistency, etc. In addition, the testimony of a witness is compared with other evidence, including the testimony of other persons. And, finally, to check the correctness of the testimony of the witness, various investigative actions can be carried out: an experiment, examination, interrogation of other persons, an expert examination is appointed. If there are contradictions in the testimony of a witness with the testimony of other persons, a confrontation may be held.
Evaluation of the testimony of a witness consists in determining the relevance, admissibility, reliability and sufficiency of the information contained in the testimony to establish the circumstances to be proven in the case.
When assessing the reliability of testimony, it is taken into account, first, the possibility of deliberate distortion of information, giving deliberately false information. Therefore, the interest of the witness in the outcome of the case is checked (whether he is a relative of any of the persons involved in the case or an outsider), as well as his moral and psychological qualities (honesty or deceit, a tendency to fantasize, etc.). You should be especially careful with the testimony of young witnesses, since children are very prone to fantasy, suggestion.
Secondly, it is necessary to take into account the possibility of inadvertent distortion of information, good faith delusion or error.
The process of forming evidence includes three stages: perception, memorization and reproduction. Errors and distortions are possible on each of them. When perceiving an event, a distorted view of it may be due to the state of health, personal psychophysiological qualities of the witness (for example, significant loss of vision, observation or, on the contrary, absent-mindedness), his state at the time of perception (for example, a state of alcoholic intoxication or fatigue), perception conditions ( time of day, illumination, weather, etc.). The accuracy of memorization also depends on the personal qualities of the witness, as well as on the time interval from the moment of observation to the moment of interrogation. Various distortions are possible during the reproduction of the perceived. Not every person is able to correctly, clearly and clearly state what he saw or heard.
The testimony of the victim is close to the testimony of a witness in terms of the nature of the actions performed in the direction of collecting evidence.
Victim testimony - this is information provided to the victim orally or in writing during an interrogation conducted at a preliminary investigation, inquest or in a court session, as well as during the performance of other investigative actions with his participation.
The testimony of the victim in its main features has much in common with the testimony of a witness in its procedural nature, the content of the subject of the testimony, and the peculiarities of their formation. Based on this, the law established a unified procedural procedure for obtaining, collecting, checking and evaluating the testimony of a witness and a victim.
The subject of the victim's testimony coincides with the subject of the witness's testimony (Articles 93, 94 of the CCP). At the same time, there are certain differences between the testimony of the witness and the testimony of the victim, which are primarily due to different legal status these participants in the process.
The victim is usually interested in the outcome of the case. This circumstance may affect the objectivity of his testimony about the circumstances of the crime committed.
The victim, unlike the witness, is an active participant in the process. If for a witness testifying is his duty, then for a victim it is not only a duty, but also a right that he is endowed with to actively protect his interests.
The assessment of the testimony of the victim, as well as of the witness, is made on a general basis. It should be borne in mind that the testimony of the victim comes from the person concerned. After the completion of the preliminary investigation, the victim gets acquainted with the case materials. The awareness of the victim about all the materials and evidence collected in the case, of course, can leave a significant imprint on his personal testimony. All this obliges to critically treat the testimony of the victim, subject them to a thorough check.
Expert opinion Is a procedural document certifying the fact and progress of the expert's examination of the materials submitted by the body conducting the criminal procedure, and containing conclusions on the issues put to the expert, based on the expert's special knowledge in the field of science, technology, art or craft and other fields of activity (Art . 95 of the Criminal Procedure Code).
The expert opinion does not have any advantages over other evidence and is subject to mandatory assessment. In Art. 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure specifically stipulates that an expert's opinion is not mandatory for the criminal prosecution authorities and the court. However, their disagreement with the conclusion must be motivated by them in an appropriate resolution, determination, sentence.
Evaluation of the expert's conclusion includes, first of all, the establishment of its admissibility as evidence, that is, compliance with the procedural procedure for appointing and conducting an examination. The competence of the expert and his lack of interest in the outcome of the case should be verified. Only objects that are properly procedurally formalized can be subject to expert examination. In the event of significant violations, entailing their inadmissibility, the expert's opinion also loses probative value. And, finally, the correctness of the expert conclusion, the presence of all the necessary details in it, must be checked.
The assessment of the relevance of the expert's conclusion depends on the relevance of the investigated objects. If their relevance is not confirmed, then it automatically loses this property and the expert's conclusion.
The assessment of the reliability of the conclusion includes determining the reliability of the methodology applied by the expert, the sufficiency of the material presented to the expert and the correctness of the initial data, the completeness of the research conducted by the expert.
Physical evidence objects are recognized that served as instruments of a crime, or retained traces of a crime, or were objects of criminal actions, as well as money and other valuables obtained by criminal means, and all other objects and documents that can become means of detecting a crime, establishing factual circumstances cases, identifying the perpetrators or refuting the accusation or mitigating the responsibility of the accused (art. 96 of the CCP).
The essence of material evidence consists in a direct material display, recording of factual data, on the basis of which circumstances that are significant for the case are established.
Material carriers of evidentiary information that can act as material evidence are divided by law into groups: objects; money and other values; documents.
1. Items that served as an instrument of crime. These are all those items that were used by a criminal to achieve a socially dangerous goal, regardless of the main purpose of the item. These include, for example, murder weapons (knife, pistol, etc.) or objects with which the theft was made (master key, crowbar used to break open the door). Vehicles used as instruments of crime are material evidence and are subject to confiscation.
2. Items that have retained traces of the crime. These are any items that have undergone a change in appearance, damage under the influence of a criminal, instruments of crime and other factors associated with a socially dangerous act. Such items include, for example, clothing with traces of blood or tears, items with gunshot injuries, a broken safe, etc.
3. Items that were the objects of criminal acts. These include items that are targeted for criminal offense. For example, stolen things.
4. Money and other valuables obtained by criminal means. This does not mean the money and values \u200b\u200bat which the criminal encroachment was directed, but precisely the money acquired as a result of the crime.
5. All other items and documents that may serve as a means of detecting a crime, establishing the factual circumstances of the case, identifying the perpetrators or refuting the charges or mitigating the responsibility of the accused.
An object can become material evidence, provided that the procedural order of its receipt, discovery and admission to the case is observed. This order consists of four blocks of actions.
First, the fact and all the circumstances of the discovery or receipt of the object by the investigator (court) must be procedurally formalized. Usually things are seized in the course of some investigative action (inspection, search, seizure, etc.) and the fact of seizure is recorded in the corresponding protocol. Things can be presented by the accused, the victim, other participants in the process, citizens, which must also be documented in a protocol.
Secondly, the physical evidence must be examined and described in detail in the protocol of the investigative action, during the production of which the object was found. If possible, physical evidence should be photographed. You can carry out a separate investigative action - examination of material evidence (object) and draw up a separate protocol.
Thirdly, the material evidence must be attached to the case by a special resolution (determination) of the body conducting the criminal process.
Fourth, the safety of material evidence should be ensured. As a rule, they should be kept in a criminal case.
If items, due to their bulkiness or other reasons, cannot be stored in a criminal case, they must be photographed, sealed, if possible, and stored in a place indicated by the body conducting the criminal procedure, about which the case must have an appropriate certificate (Article 97 of the CCP) ...
Material evidence is stored until the sentence comes into legal force or until the expiration of the time limit for appealing against the decision or ruling to discontinue the case, but not more than three years. In some cases, material evidence can be returned to their owners even before the expiration of the specified time limits, if this is possible without prejudice to the proceedings.
Assessment of physical evidence includes establishing their admissibility, relevance and evidentiary value. Admissibility is determined by compliance with the rules for their withdrawal and procedural registration, as well as storage rules.
The relevance of physical evidence and their evidentiary value depend on the fact that they establish. As a rule, physical evidence does not indicate the fact of the crime itself, but about another event that has evidentiary value, i.e. are circumstantial evidence. Only in cases where the possession of an object (for example, a firearm, a narcotic substance), its storage constitutes a criminal act, it can be considered that material evidence has the value of direct evidence, since directly testifies to the very event of the crime.
The assessment of material evidence is carried out in conjunction with other evidence and, first of all, with documents that record the circumstances of their seizure and the results of their study. The verification and evaluation takes into account the circumstances under which the item was discovered, the time, place and conditions of its discovery. If there is no data on this in the case materials, then it is deprived of evidentiary value.
Protocols of investigative actions, court sessions and operational-search measures... A special group of sources of evidence is made up of protocols of operational-search measures, investigative actions and a court session.
According to Art. 99 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the sources of evidence are the protocols of investigative actions drawn up in the manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure, certifying the circumstances and facts established during examination, examination, seizure, search, presentation for identification, verification of testimony on the spot, investigative experiment, exhumation; protocols of investigative actions and operational-search measures on wiretapping and recording of negotiations carried out using technical means of communication and other negotiations, drawn up in accordance with the procedure established by law and with the attachment of the corresponding recording of the wiretap, as well as the minutes of the court session reflecting the course of judicial actions and their results ...
A feature of this group of protocols is that they record certain circumstances and facts that are important for the case, which are directly perceived by the person who draws up the protocol.
At the same time, as can be seen from the content of Art. 99 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, protocols of interrogations of witnesses, victims, suspects, accused, protocols of confrontation do not belong to the protocols of investigative and judicial actions as an independent source of evidence. And this is not accidental, since the interrogation protocol reflects not the perception of the actual data directly by the interrogating person, but only the story of the interrogated (for example, the testimony of a witness) about the events and circumstances that he previously perceived. Thus, interrogation protocols are only a method (form) of recording testimony.
Verification and assessment of the protocols of investigative and judicial actions is carried out on the same grounds as for all other types of evidence, since they have no predetermined force and it is possible that they may contain errors or inaccuracies.
The protocol must be drawn up only by an authorized official and have all the necessary details.
Verifying and evaluating the protocols involves comparing the evidence they contain with other evidence in the case.
The protocols of investigative and judicial actions may be accompanied by photographic negatives and photographs, films, transparencies, phonograms, plans, diagrams, casts and prints of traces made during the production of investigative and judicial actions. However, they acquire evidentiary value only in conjunction with the protocol of the investigative or judicial action.
In Art. 99 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a new source of evidence appeared, in contrast to those in the previous legislation, a source of evidence - protocols of operational-search measures and investigative actions on wiretapping of negotiations carried out using technical means.
If it becomes necessary to monitor the negotiations and record them, the investigator issues a resolution and sends it for execution to the appropriate institution.
Other documents and other media... Other documents are recognized as sources of evidence if the circumstances and facts set forth in them are certified by officials of enterprises, institutions, organizations, associations and citizens and are significant for the criminal case.
Other media of information include materials of photography and filming, sound and video recordings and other media received, requested or submitted in accordance with the procedure provided for in Art. 103 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Any object of the material world on which some kind of conventional signs (letters, numbers, etc.) is fixed some thought is recognized as a document.
A document becomes evidence in a criminal case in cases where the information recorded in it is significant for the case. Documents can be official unofficial, as well as original (originals) and derivatives (copies).
Other documents that are sources of evidence include documents drawn up by: the criminal prosecution authority and the court (minutes of an oral statement about a crime; protocol of surrender; protocol of detention; sentence in another criminal case, court decision in a civil case, which entered into legal force, according to which the decisions of the courts on the circumstances relevant to the case are binding on the body conducting the criminal procedure, to the extent provided for by Article 106 of the Criminal Procedure Code, etc.); officials of organizations (report of a crime, an audit report, a description, a criminal record, etc.); citizens (a statement of a crime, a confession, letters, etc.).
Photographic and filming materials, sound and video recordings and other information carriers refer to other information carriers as independent sources of evidence in the event that they are obtained not in connection with the production of investigative actions, but are made and presented to the body conducting the criminal procedure by other physical or legal entities (for example, during the wedding, a video was made, which captured a fight between the guests and the moment the victim was stabbed). If specified in Part 2 of Art. 100 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, information carriers are made during the production of investigative actions, then in this case they are appendices to the protocols of investigative actions, ensuring their completeness.
The materials of photographing and filming, sound and video recordings and other information carriers demanded by the body conducting the criminal procedure from organizations, bodies carrying out operational-search activities, officials and citizens, or materials submitted to it by individuals and legal entities, should be examined, if necessary with the participation of specialist, attesting witnesses, about which the criminal prosecution authority draws up a protocol in compliance with the requirements of Art. 193 and 194 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and in the court session the results of the examination are entered into the minutes of the court session.
The individuals submitting these media are usually questioned about the place, time and circumstances in which they were discovered or performed.
Other documents and other information carriers are attached to the criminal case and remain with it during the entire period of its storage.
When evaluating documents, attention is drawn to their origin, whether officials have the right to issue the relevant document, and whether the form and content of the document comply with the established rules. The authenticity of the document is checked, the absence of counterfeits in it.
Any document can become material evidence if it acquires any of its features (for example, it is stolen, cleaned up). In such cases, the document is attached to the case as material evidence.
Documents, like other evidence, have no predetermined force.
The issue of using as a source of evidence requires special consideration. materials obtained in the course of operational-search activities. Such materials can be used, provided that they are received in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus, submitted, verified and evaluated in the manner prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Code.
Materials obtained in the course of operational-search activities are understood as collected, confirmed and documented factual data obtained publicly and secretly by employees of operational divisions in the manner prescribed by the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On operational-search activities" and the Criminal Procedure Code, in the process of operational-search activities to protect the life, health, rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens, property, ensuring the security of society and the state from criminal encroachments (instructions on the procedure for registration and provision by operational units of internal affairs bodies of materials obtained in the course of operational search activities for their use in criminal proceedings, approved by the decree of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on September 29, 2005). emergence of the circumstances included in the subject of proof, an indication of the source of their receipt in order to verify the evidence formed on their basis. -search measures must reflect the sequence and results of the ORM, which can be recognized as sources of evidence, as well as the attached items and documents, examined and packaged in the prescribed manner, obtained during the ORM. When conducting, within the framework of operational-search activities, ORM using operational and technical forces, their results are recorded on material media (phonograms, videograms, films, photographic films, photographs, magnetic, laser disks, diskettes, digital storage media, films and others) and are attached to the protocol ORM or operational and technical measures. The recording of the results of operational and technical measures should be carried out in such a way as to preserve the possibility of expertly establishing the authenticity of the recordings made, as well as the belonging of the recorded voices and portrait images to specific persons. and photographic materials, copies and casts, as well as a description of their individual characteristics. The provision of materials includes: - the issuance of an order on the transfer of materials to the body conducting the criminal process, which should list operational and official documents and objects and documents obtained during the implementation of ORM that can be sources of evidence; - execution of the accompanying document and the actual transfer of materials: mailing, handover or otherwise. Evidence submitted by the operational-search divisions can be accepted by the investigating body only as material evidence (Art. 96 of the CCP) and other documents (Art. 100 of the CCP ).
All sources of scientific and technical information can be divided into two types: documentary and electronic. The bulk of scientific information is presented in the form of documents, which can be conditionally subdivided into primary and secondary, resulting from the transformation of information based on the study of primary documents. The list of the main sources of information is presented in Fig. 3.1.
Figure: 3.1. Main sources of information
In turn, primary sources are divided into published and unpublished (Fig. 3.2).
Figure: 3.2. Classification of primary sources of information
Published sources of information
Book - non-periodical publication in the form of several bound sheets of printed material, more than 48 pages in volume, as a rule, in a cover or binding, edited and edited. Books are classified into several types:
Scientific, popular science and production and technical;
Textbooks and teaching aids;
Reference books and encyclopedias;
Normative literature.
Brochure - print work, from 5 to 48 pages.
Periodical - printed works published in separate, non-repeating issues, under the same name, which are regularly published at certain or indefinite intervals, and each issue has a serial number or date.
Journal - a periodical published at least twice a year and not more often than once a week, subordinate to the interests of a certain circle of readers, having a permanent title, the same design and annual continuous numbering.
The important role of the journal in scientific communications is as follows:
The journal performs simultaneously the functions of a current notification and a public archive, providing prompt information delivery;
Is a means of testing the results of scientific research;
Fixes the priority of scientific and applied problems, creating conditions for the recognition of authors as scientists.
Journal publications make up about 70% of all scientific documents and about 80% of specialists of various levels consider a scientific journal to be the main source of scientific and technical information.
Preprint - a reprint of a published article, which the publisher sends through its correspondent network. The preprint publishes what, perhaps, could not have been published in the journal and will never be published later, as well as material that is considered raw, controversial, unproven, and does not require such a review as a journal article.
Unpublished sources of information.
Thesis - qualifying scientific work in a certain field of science, containing a set of scientific results and provisions put forward by the author for public protection and testifying to the author's personal contribution to science and his qualities as a scientist. The dissertation is based on completed and published scientific works, discoveries or inventions, technological processes introduced into production, etc.
Deposited manuscripts - scientific works transferred for storage to the depositary body, performed individually or in co-authorship and designed for a limited circle of consumers. Information about deposited manuscripts is reflected in abstract journals and bibliographic indexes. Deposited manuscripts are equated to publications, and their authors retain the right to publish articles in scientific journals. The limitation on the volume of deposited manuscripts is much less than for publications, which allows the author to more fully present the results of his work.
Scientific report - the report of the scientific organization on the research, which is available to organizations and individuals, is stored in the VNTI Center fund.
Secondary sourcesserve as an intermediary between documents and recipients (readers, viewers, listeners) and are the result of analytical-synthetic information processing (ASPI). Information publications , the purpose of which is to provide up-to-date information about the publications themselves and about the most significant aspects of their content. Informational publications, unlike ordinary bibliographic publications, operate not only with information about the works of print, but also with the ideas and facts contained in them. Institutes, centers and scientific and technical information services (STI) are engaged in publishing information publications.
The bulk of sources is divided into three types: bibliographic, abstract and review (Fig. 3.3).
Figure: 3.3. Classification structure of information publications
Summary - answers the question "What?" about the source of information.
annotation - answers the question "What?" and "About what?" about the source of information.
abstract is an abbreviated summary of the content of the primary document (or part of it) with basic factual information and conclusions. Referencing implies an analysis of the literature on the problem, i.e. a systematized presentation of other people's thoughts with an indication of the source and, without fail, with their own assessment of the stated.
Catalogs (filing cabinets), pointers that can be compiled according to various criteria. Most often, there are alphabetical, author's, subject, geographical, numbering, chronological, systematic catalogs (by branch of knowledge, regardless of who the author is), personal files (about someone), address card indexes.
Bibliographic publications contain an ordered set of bibliographic descriptions that inform specialists about what has been published on a subject of interest. The bibliographic description serves two purposes here. On the one hand, it notifies about the appearance of a document (signal function), and on the other hand, it provides the necessary information for finding it (address function). Bibliographic descriptions are bibliographic indexes and bibliographic lists.
Bibliographic indexes are most often of a signal nature and consist of a list of bibliographic descriptions, often without annotations and abstracts. These publications reflect domestic and foreign literature with maximum completeness. They are distinguished by the efficiency of preparation and relatively short terms from the moment of publication of the publication to the moment of its reflection in the index.
The most significant bibliographic index is Signal Information (SI). The purpose of such a publication is to quickly inform specialists about new publications on world science and technology. It is these publications that are entrusted with the function of proactively informing readers about the just published scientific and technical literature. SI is mainly systematic indexes issued in the form of bulletins, the subject of which covers almost all branches of world science and technology.
In connection with the development of scientific research and the need to analyze in detail the literature published in previous years, it is increasingly important for researchers retrospective bibliography,the purpose of which is the preparation and distribution of bibliographic information about the works of print for any period of time in the past
This bibliography is represented by a wide range of manuals. Among them are thematic indexes and reviews, intrabook and article lists of literature, catalogs of industry scientific and technical publishing houses, personal bibliography of prominent natural scientists and engineers, bibliographic indexes on the history of natural science and technology.
Abstract publications contain publications of abstracts, including an abbreviated presentation of the content of primary documents (or their parts) with basic factual information and conclusions Abstract publications include abstract journals, abstract collections, express information, newsletters.
Abstract journals on technical sciences publishes VINITI, which most fully reflects the entire world literature on natural science and technology, publishing abstracts, annotations and bibliographic descriptions compiled into articles, monographs, collections.
Abstract collections are periodicals, continuing or non-periodicals that contain abstracts of unpublished documents. They are issued by the central branch institutes of scientific and technical information and technical and economic research. Such publications are usually of a narrow theme.
Express information (EI) - This is a periodical journal or sheet form, which contains extended abstracts of the most relevant published foreign materials and unpublished domestic documents that require prompt coverage. Abstracts contain all the basic data of primary sources, accompanied by figures and tables, as well as theoretical calculations, as a result of which there is no need to refer to the original.
Information leaflets - operative printed editions that contain abstracts reflecting information on advanced production experience or scientific and technical achievements.
TO review publications includes a review on one issue, direction and a collection of reviews. Reviews summarize the information contained in the primary documents, being the highest stage of their analytical and synthetic processing. Such publications usually report on the state or development of any branch of science or practical activity, reflecting everything new that has been done in it for a certain time.
The purpose of the reviews is to ensure that scientific research and development is carried out at a modern level, to eliminate parallelism in the work of research organizations, to help make the right choice of direction and methods of development in a certain area.
A job seeker conducting a search for literary sources cannot ignore the publication of the Book Chamber, which publishes bibliographic indexes; publications of the state library; State Library of Foreign Literature, which publishes various bibliographic indexes and card indexes.
Along with information publications for information retrieval, one should use automated information retrieval systems, databases and data banks . The search data can be used directly, but most often they serve as a step (key) to the discovery of primary sources of information, which are scientific works (monographs, collections) and other publications necessary for scientific work.
Our planet's resources are not unlimited. They are used by humanity as material for creating social benefits and recreational activities. Sometimes they are recklessly consumed in large quantities, leading to depletion of reserves.
Non-renewable natural resources are especially affected. This problem covers most of the developed countries, so experts in this field have come up with many rational ways to solve the problem of exhaustion.
Resource classification
A simple classification will help us figure out which resources to worry about in the first place. All resources of the planet are divided into two large groups: exhaustible and inexhaustible.
- Inexhaustible resources are primarily the water resources of the planet. Also this group includes cosmic rays, wind energy, air, tidal energy.
- Exhaustible resources are divided into two main subgroups: renewable and non-renewable resources.
Renewable resources
This group includes plants and animals, forests, some minerals and soil. A feature of such resources is the ability to self-renew, which can last for a different period of time.
For example, animals and plants restore their population in a few years, while forests will take several hundred years, and the fertile layer of the earth - humus - will accumulate for a thousand years. By the way, because of such a long period of time, the soil is classified as a conditionally renewable resource.
While these sources of raw materials can be recovered, sometimes there is a serious need for them, and then a shortage. For example, if you cut down forests in a period that will be less than their recovery time, the massifs will begin to gradually disappear. The same applies to the species of animals and plants listed in the Red Book.
Problems of rational soil use
When you look at a map of the world, land seems to be an immense territory. However, only one third of them are fertile. The rest is either mountain ranges, or swamps, or deserts, or even permafrost.
The soil is a conditionally renewable resource, so it should be spent on the agricultural sector, taking into account the rapid depletion of the fertile layer of the earth.
The situation is aggravated by such natural factors as soil erosion and drying. In addition, a person himself negatively affects the process of humus recovery. Examples are the many successful attempts at reclamation of wetlands where the soil quality is now significantly inferior to the necessary requirements.
There are other indirect anthropogenic factors. For example, excessive fertilization of soils with chemicals, pollution of wastewater (and, accordingly, the ingress of all dissolved substances into the soil).
Agree, the picture is depressing. This means that it is worth treating the soil more reverently as a resource that a person needs for development. agriculture... The cultivation of crops is one of the main sources of food, which is an important factor in improving the situation with the deterioration of the quality of soils and the reduction of their territories.
Plants and Animals
The biosphere is a source of a large amount of materials that are used to create social benefits. We are talking about flora and fauna.
Man uses these resources not only in the form of food, but also as sources for the production of tissue materials and medicines. Scientists also test their developments on animals or plants in laboratory conditions.
The anthropogenic factor influencing the formation of the biosphere is very large. This is felt by the disappearance of some species or an extremely small number of their representatives, by a change in the quality of biocenoses and, as a consequence, the formation of negative flora and fauna. Pollution of soils and water bodies is the reason for the disappearance of animals and plants important for humans.
The loss of one link in the power supply chain leads to the disruption of the entire chain. This is what happens now in nature: animals leave their native territories in order to survive, and other species come in their place, which negatively affect the entire ecosystem.
Of course, animals and plants do not belong to the group non-renewable resourcesnevertheless, vigilant monitoring of changes in the biosphere is important.
Non-renewable resources
Particular attention should be paid to this group of minerals, since these materials have found great application in modern industry.
Non-renewable resources include various metal ores, oil, natural gas, oil shale, peat, limestone, etc. All these are precursors of building materials and fuels, without which modern civilized man cannot do.
Exhaustible, non-renewable resources require careful handling. The rate of extraction of minerals is incommensurable with the time of their formation, therefore, a gradual decrease is already felt in the corresponding sources.
Inexhaustible resources
The problem of non-renewable resources is the potential depletion of their sources, which cannot self-renew. Therefore, the amount of consumed minerals must be monitored so that mines and mines are not depleted ahead of time.
This problem can be partially solved using potential energy sources. This includes air and wind energy, cosmic (solar) rays, and the heat of the Earth. Such resources are considered inexhaustible, since their consumption will not affect the environment in any way, and the sources themselves accumulate a large amount of energy.
The water reserves of the Earth also belong to this group of resources. Despite the apparent possibility of reducing the volume of water, its reserves are large enough to be sufficient both for energy production and for use in production.
Water is a potential source of energy
The water reserves of the Earth are used by man everywhere. From consumption in the food industry to cooling devices in factories and factories, most areas of human life depend on water.
Depending on how water is used by the population, consumers and users are distinguished.
- Consumers are agriculture and utilities, industry (both food and technology). This group uses water as a resource that is consumed locally.
- Users are fishermen, hydroelectric power plants, water transport. Here we are not talking about the exhaustion of water, since it is not consumed directly, but only helps in achieving the set goals.
Fresh water accounts for only 2% of all reserves. Therefore, the use of clean fresh water is also monitored, because the relative volume is catastrophically small. In some cases, reserves of life-giving moisture can be compared to a non-renewable resource, and its scarcity is especially felt in developing countries in Africa.
Natural resource potential (NRP)
PDP is more of an economic concept that shows the ability of a resource source to provide a certain amount of material without harm to the environment and itself in particular.
The natural resource potential is relevant for solving environmental problems, since a certain territory is usually considered with its sources of minerals, vegetation, animals, and water. In general, all of the listed types of renewable and non-renewable natural resources are accepted as components of the PRP.
The term "recreational potential" is also relevant in the context of environmental problems. RP means all the natural resources of a given territory, which, in theory, can be used to organize recreational activities. At the same time, topical socio-cultural, natural and economic problems are considered here.
Non-renewable resource stocks
In theory, everyone imagines that someday the sources of minerals will be empty. However, even specialists cannot accurately calculate available quantity non-renewable resources at the moment, since there are undiscovered points of metal ores and oil, as well as in already operating sources only an approximate amount of extracted materials is known.
All reserves of the Earth are classified into undetected and discovered. Each of these categories is divided into two more subgroups: reserves and other resources.
- Reserves are those minerals that can be mined with subsequent profit and use as energy sources or necessary materials... These resources can be mined using modern technological devices.
- Other resources represent either undiscovered or potential sources of minerals. Extraction from such sources may not be possible due to equipment shortages or high costs outweighing profits.
The problem of exhaustion of renewable and non-renewable resources is indirectly solved general rule: if 80% of the reserve minerals have already been mined, the source is considered to be developed The main reason is the financial disadvantage of the remaining 20% \u200b\u200bof the materials.
Energy: pros and cons
What criteria are critical when dealing with different sources of resources?
- General stocks of materials.
- Clean useful exit.
- Social and state security.
- Cost.
- Potential impact on the environment.
The most developed at the moment are the following energy sources:
1. Oil. A relatively cheap source of fuel around the world. Oil is easily transported through advanced pipe systems, and is also processed without problems in production. Can be used raw.
The main environmental problem of oil use is large volumes of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, which is a source of the development of the greenhouse effect with accompanying problems.
According to experts, the existing oil reserves can be developed in 40-80 years.
2. Coal. The most common type of minerals. Has a good yield of heat and energy, but has a detrimental effect on the environment due to the side emission of CO 2. Also, coal mining itself affects the natural processes of the nearest biogeocenoses.
3. Gas. Along with coal, it is considered an inexpensive natural source of thermal energy. Unfortunately, combustion of the gas also generates a large amount of CO 2.
conclusions
The extraction of any kind of resource requires careful control over the process. Depletion of the most important sources of raw materials and energy is the way to world economic and political problems that will cause deterioration in the life of the population of any country.
The use of non-renewable resources has a negative impact on the environment. This issue plays an important role, since climate change and problems in biocenoses can lead to global disasters.
Information is information about something
Concept and types of information, transfer and processing, search and storage of information
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Information is, definition
Information isany information received and transmitted, stored by various sources. Information is the whole set of information about the world around us, about all kinds of processes taking place in it, which can be perceived by living organisms, electronic machines and other information systems.
- this is meaningful information about something, when the form of their presentation is also information, that is, it has a formatting function in accordance with its own nature.
Information iseverything that can be supplemented by our knowledge and assumptions.
Information is information about something, regardless of the form of their presentation.
Information is mental product of any psychophysical organism, produced by it using any means, called a media.
Information isinformation perceived by a person and (or) special. devices as a reflection of the facts of the material or spiritual world in the process of communication.
Information is data organized in a way that makes sense to the person dealing with it.
Information is the value that a person puts into data based on known conventions used to represent it.
Information is information, explanations, presentation.
Information is any data or information that interests anyone.
Information isinformation about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and condition, which are perceived by information systems (living organisms, control machines, etc.) in the process of life and work.
Same announcement (an article in a newspaper, an advertisement, a letter, a telegram, a reference, a story, a drawing, a radio broadcast, etc.) may contain a different amount of information for different people - depending on their previous knowledge, on the level of understanding of this message and interest in it.
In cases when they talk about automated work with information through any technical devices, they are not interested in the content of the message, but in how many characters this message contains.
With regard to computer data processing, information is understood as a certain sequence of symbolic designations (letters, numbers, encoded graphics and sounds, etc.), which carries a semantic load and is presented in a computer-understandable form. Each new character in such a sequence of characters increases the information volume of the message.
Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge, this concept is described by its specific set of features. For example, the concept of "information" is basic in the course of computer science, and it is impossible to define it through other, more "simple" concepts (also, in geometry, for example, it is impossible to express the content of the basic concepts of "point", "line", "plane" through simpler concepts).
The content of the basic, basic concepts in any science should be explained by examples or revealed by comparing them with the content of other concepts. In the case of the concept "information", the problem of its definition is even more complicated, since it is a general scientific concept. This concept is used in various sciences (computer science, cybernetics, biology, physics, etc.), while in each science the concept of "information" is associated with different systems of concepts.
Information concept
In modern science, two types of information are considered:
Objective (primary) information is the property of material objects and phenomena (processes) to generate a variety of states, which are transmitted through interactions (fundamental interactions) to other objects and are imprinted in their structure.
Subjective (semantic, semantic, secondary) information is the semantic content of objective information about objects and processes of the material world, formed by a person's consciousness with the help of semantic images (words, images and sensations) and recorded on some material medium.
In the everyday sense, information is information about the surrounding world and the processes occurring in it, perceived by a person or a special device.
Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge, this concept is described by its specific set of features. According to K. Shannon's concept, information is removed uncertainty, i.e. information that should remove, to one degree or another, the uncertainty existing in the consumer before they are received, expand his understanding of the object with useful information.
From the point of view of Gregory Beton, an elementary unit of information is a "not indifferent difference" or an effective difference for some larger perceiving system. Those differences that are not perceived, he calls "potential", and the perceived - "effective". "Information consists of not indifferent differences" (c) "Any perception of information is necessarily the receipt of information about the difference." From the point of view of computer science, information has a number of fundamental properties: novelty, relevance, reliability, objectivity, completeness, value, etc. Information analysis is primarily concerned with the science of logic. The word "information" comes from the Latin word informatio, which in translation means information, explanation, familiarization. The concept of information was considered by ancient philosophers.
Before the industrial revolution, defining the essence of information remained the prerogative of philosophers. Further, the science of cybernetics, which was new at that time, began to consider the issues of information theory.
Sometimes, in order to comprehend the essence of a concept, it is useful to analyze the meaning of the word that denotes this concept. Clarifying the inner form of a word and studying the history of its use can throw unexpected light on its meaning, overshadowed by the usual "technological" use of the word and modern connotations.
The word information entered the Russian language in the Peter the Great era. For the first time it is recorded in the "Spiritual Regulations" of 1721 in the meaning of "idea, concept of smth." (In European languages, it was fixed earlier - around the XIV century.)
Based on this etymology, any significant change in shape or, in other words, any materially recorded traces formed by the interaction of objects or forces and amenable to understanding can be considered information. Information is thus a converted form of energy. The bearer of information is a sign, and the way of its existence is interpretation: revealing the meaning of a sign or a sequence of signs.
The meaning can be an event reconstructed by a sign that caused its occurrence (in the case of "natural" and involuntary signs, such as traces, evidence, etc.), or a message (in the case of conventional signs inherent in the sphere of language). It is the second type of signs that constitutes the body of human culture, which, according to one of the definitions, is "a set of non-hereditarily transmitted information."
Messages can contain information about facts or interpretation of facts (from Latin interpretatio, interpretation, translation).
A living entity receives information through the senses, as well as through reflection or intuition. The exchange of information between subjects is communication or communication (from Latin communicatio, message, transmission, derived in turn from Latin communico, to make it common, to communicate, to converse, to connect).
From a practical point of view, information is always presented as a message. An informational message is associated with the source of the message, the recipient of the message and the communication channel.
Returning to the Latin etymology of the word information, let's try to answer the question of what exactly is given the form here.
It is obvious that, firstly, some sense, which, being initially formless and unexpressed, exists only potentially and must be “built” in order to become perceived and transmitted.
Secondly, the human mind, which is brought up to think structurally and clearly. Third, a society that, precisely because its members share these meanings and share them, acquires unity and functionality.
Information as an expressed rational meaning is knowledge that can be stored, transmitted and be the basis for generating other knowledge. The forms of preservation of knowledge (historical memory) are diverse: from myths, chronicles and pyramids to libraries, museums and computer databases.
Information - information about the world around us, about the processes taking place in it, which are perceived by living organisms, control machines and other information systems.
The word "information" is Latin. Over a long life, its meaning has undergone evolution, now expanding, then extremely narrowing its boundaries. Initially, the word "information" meant: "presentation", "concept", then - "information", "message transmission".
In recent years, scientists have decided that the usual (all accepted) meaning of the word "information" is too elastic, vague, and gave it such a meaning: "a measure of certainty in the message."
Information theory brought about the needs of practice. Its origin is associated with the work of Claude Shannon "Mathematical theory of communication", published in 1946. The foundations of information theory are based on the results obtained by many scientists. By the second half of the 20th century, the globe was buzzing with transmitted information running through telephone and telegraph cables and radio channels. Later, electronic computers appeared - information processors. And for that time, the main task of information theory was, first of all, to increase the efficiency of the functioning of communication systems. The difficulty in the design and operation of means, systems and communication channels is that it is not enough for the designer and engineer to solve the problem from the physical and energy positions. From these points of view, the system can be the most perfect and economical. But it is also important when creating transmission systems to pay attention to how much information will pass through this transmission system. After all, information can be measured quantitatively, calculated. And they act in such calculations in the most usual way: they abstract from the meaning of the message, as they abandon concreteness in the arithmetic operations that are familiar to all of us (like from adding two apples and three apples to adding numbers in general: 2 + 3).
Scientists stated that they "completely ignored the human assessment of information." To a sequential series of 100 letters, for example, they assign a certain meaning to information, not paying attention to whether this information has meaning and whether, in turn, it has meaning in practical applications. The quantitative approach is the most developed branch of information theory. By this definition, a collection of 100 letters - a 100-letter phrase from a newspaper, a Shakespeare play, or Einstein's theorem - has exactly the same amount of information.
This quantification of information is extremely useful and practical. It exactly corresponds to the task of the communications engineer, who must transmit all the information contained in the submitted telegram, regardless of the value of this information to the addressee. The communication channel is soulless. One thing is important to the transmitting system: to transmit the required amount of information in a certain time. How do you calculate the amount of information in a particular message?
The assessment of the amount of information is based on the laws of probability theory, more precisely, it is determined through the probabilities of events. This is understandable. A message has value, carries information only when we learn from it about the outcome of an event of a random nature, when it is to some extent unexpected. After all, the message about the already known does not contain any information. Those. if, for example, someone calls you on the phone and says: "It is light during the day and dark at night," then such a message will surprise you only with the absurdity of the obvious and well-known statement, and not with the news it contains. Another thing is, for example, the result of a race at a horse race. Who will come first? The outcome here is difficult to predict. The more an event of interest to us has random outcomes, the more valuable the message about its result, the more information. An event message that has only two equally possible outcomes contains one piece of information called a bit. The choice of a unit of information is not accidental. It is related to the most common binary way of encoding it in transmission and processing. Let us try, at least in the most simplified form, to imagine the general principle of the quantitative assessment of information, which is the cornerstone of the whole theory of information.
We already know that the amount of information depends on the probabilities of certain outcomes of an event. If an event, as scientists say, has two equally likely outcomes, this means that the probability of each outcome is 1/2. This is the probability of getting "heads" or "tails" when flipping a coin. If an event has three equally probable outcomes, then the probability of each is 1/3. Note that the sum of the probabilities of all outcomes is always equal to one: after all, one of all possible outcomes will surely come. An event, as you yourself understand, can have unequal outcomes. So, in a football match between a strong and a weak team, the probability of a strong team winning is high - for example, 4/5. The probability of a draw is much less, for example 3/20. The probability of defeat is very small.
It turns out that the amount of information is a measure of reducing the uncertainty of a certain situation. Different amounts of information are transmitted through communication channels, and the amount of information passing through the channel cannot be more than its bandwidth. And it is determined by the amount of information that passes here per unit of time. One of the heroes of Jules Verne's novel "The Mysterious Island", journalist Gideon Spillett, telephoned a chapter from the Bible so that his competitors could not use telephone connection... In this case, the channel was fully loaded, and the amount of information was equal to zero, since the information known to him was transmitted to the subscriber. This means that the channel was idle, passing a strictly defined number of pulses, without loading them with anything. Meanwhile, the more information each of a certain number of pulses carries, the more fully the channel bandwidth is used. Therefore, you need to intelligently encode information, find an economical, stingy language for transmitting messages.
Information is "sifted" in the most thorough way. In the telegraph, frequently occurring letters, letter combinations, even whole phrases are depicted with a shorter set of zeros and ones, and those that are less common - with a longer one. In the case when the length of the codeword is reduced for frequently occurring symbols and increased for rarely occurring, one speaks of efficient coding of information. But in practice, it quite often happens that the code resulting from the most careful "sifting", the code is convenient and economical, can distort the message due to interference, which, unfortunately, always occurs in communication channels: sound distortion in the phone, atmospheric interference in the radio, distortion or darkening of the image in television, errors in transmission in the telegraph. These interferences, or, as experts call them, noise, strike the information. And from this there are the most incredible and, naturally, unpleasant surprises.
Therefore, to increase reliability in the transmission and processing of information, it is necessary to introduce extra characters - a kind of protection against distortion. They - these extra symbols - do not carry the actual content in the message, they are redundant. From the point of view of information theory, everything that makes a language colorful, flexible, rich in shades, multifaceted, ambiguous is redundancy. How redundant from such positions Tatyana's letter to Onegin! How many informational excesses it contains for a short and understandable message "I love you"! And how informationally accurate are the drawn designations, understandable to everyone and everyone who enters the metro today, where instead of words and phrases of announcements there are laconic symbolic signs indicating: "Entry", "Exit".
In this regard, it is useful to recall the anecdote told at one time by the famous American scientist Benjamin Franklin about a hat maker who invited his friends to discuss the draft of a sign. It was supposed to draw a hat on the sign and write: "John Thompson, a hat maker, makes and sells hats for cash." ... A friend commented that the words “for cash” were redundant - such a reminder would be offensive to the customer. Another also found the word “sells” superfluous, since it goes without saying that the hat maker sells hats, and does not give them away for free. The third thought that the words "hatman" and "makes hats" were unnecessary tautology, and the last words were thrown out. The fourth suggested to throw out the word "hat-maker" - the drawn hat clearly says who John Thompson is. Finally, the fifth insisted that it made no difference to the buyer whether the hat-maker was called John Thompson or otherwise, and suggested that this indication be dispensed with, so that in the end nothing remained on the sign but the hat. Of course, if people used only this kind of codes, without redundancy in messages, then all "information forms" - books, reports, articles - would be extremely short. But they would lose in clarity and beauty.
The information can be divided into types according to different criteria: in truth: true and false;
by the way of perception:
Visual - perceived by the organs of vision;
Auditory - perceived by the organs of hearing;
Tactile - perceived by tactile receptors;
Olfactory - perceived by the olfactory receptors;
Gustatory - perceived by the taste buds.
by the form of presentation:
Text - transmitted in the form of symbols intended to denote language lexemes;
Numeric - in the form of numbers and signs indicating mathematical operations;
Graphic - in the form of images, objects, graphs;
Sound - oral or in the form of a recording, the transmission of language lexemes by an audible way
by appointment:
Massive - contains trivial information and operates with a set of concepts that are understood by most of the society;
Special - contains a specific set of concepts, when used, information is transmitted that may not be understood by the bulk of society, but are necessary and understandable within a narrow social group where this information is used;
Secret - transmitted to a narrow circle of people and through closed (protected) channels;
Personal (private) - a set of information about a person that determines the social status and types of social interactions within the population.
by value:
Relevant - information that is valuable at a given time;
Reliable - information received without distortion;
Understandable - information expressed in a language understandable to the person to whom it is intended;
Complete - information sufficient to make a correct decision or understanding;
Useful - the usefulness of the information is determined by the subject who received the information, depending on the scope of its use.
The value of information in various fields of knowledge
In information theory, many systems, methods, approaches, ideas are being developed nowadays. However, scientists believe that new trends in information theory will be added to modern trends, new ideas will appear. As proof of the correctness of their assumptions, they cite the "living", developing nature of science, indicate that the theory of information is surprisingly quickly and firmly introduced into the most diverse areas of human knowledge. Information theory has penetrated into physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, pedagogy, economics, logic, technical sciences, and aesthetics. According to the experts themselves, the doctrine of information, which arose due to the needs of communication theory and cybernetics, has stepped over their framework. And now, perhaps, we have the right to talk about information as a scientific concept that gives researchers a theoretical and informational method, with the help of which one can penetrate into many sciences about animate and inanimate nature, about society, which will allow not only to look at all the problems with a new side, but also to see the unseen. That is why the term "information" has become widespread in our time, having become part of such concepts as information system, information culture, even information ethics.
Many scientific disciplines use information theory to emphasize a new direction in the old sciences. This is how, for example, information geography, information economy, information law arose. But the term "information" acquired extremely great importance in connection with the development of the latest computer technology, the automation of mental labor, the development of new means of communication and information processing, and especially with the emergence of informatics. One of the most important tasks of information theory is the study of the nature and properties of information, the creation of methods for its processing, in particular the transformation of a wide variety of modern information into computer programs, with the help of which the automation of mental work takes place - a kind of strengthening of intelligence, and therefore the development of the intellectual resources of society.
The word "information" comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, clarification, familiarization. The concept of "information" is basic in the course of computer science, however, it is impossible to define it through other, more "simple" concepts. The concept of "information" is used in various sciences, while in each science the concept of "information" is associated with different systems of concepts. Information in biology: Biology studies wildlife and the concept of "information" is associated with the appropriate behavior of living organisms. In living organisms, information is transmitted and stored using objects of different physical nature (state of DNA), which are considered as signs of biological alphabets. Genetic information is inherited and stored in all cells of living organisms. Philosophical approach: Information is interaction, reflection, cognition. Cybernetic approach: Information is the characteristics of a control signal transmitted over a communication line.
The role of information in philosophy
The traditionalism of the subjective has always dominated the early definitions of information as a category, concept, property of the material world. Information exists outside of our consciousness, and can be reflected in our perception only as a result of interaction: reflection, reading, receiving in the form of a signal, stimulus. Information is not material, like all properties of matter. Information is in the series: matter, space, time, consistency, function, etc., which are the fundamental concepts of a formalized reflection of objective reality in its distribution and variability, diversity and manifestations. Information is a property of matter and reflects its properties (state or ability to interact) and quantity (measure) through interaction.
From a material point of view, information is the order of the objects of the material world. For example, the order of letters on a piece of paper according to certain rules is written information. The order of colored dots on a sheet of paper according to certain rules is graphical information. The order of musical notes is musical information. The order of genes in DNA is hereditary information. The order of bits in a computer is computer information, etc. etc. For the implementation of information exchange, the presence of necessary and sufficient conditions is required.
The necessary conditions:
The presence of at least two different objects of the material or non-material world;
Objects have a common property that allows them to be identified as a carrier of information;
The presence of a specific property in objects that allows you to distinguish objects from each other;
The presence of a space property that allows you to determine the order of objects. For example, the placement of written information on paper is a specific property of paper that allows letters to be positioned from left to right and top to bottom.
There is only one sufficient condition: the presence of a subject capable of recognizing information. These are man and human society, animal societies, robots, etc. The information message is constructed by selecting copies of objects from the basis and the arrangement of these objects in space in a certain order. The length of the information message is defined as the number of copies of the basis objects and is always expressed as an integer. It is necessary to distinguish between the length of an informational message, which is always measured as an integer, and the amount of knowledge contained in an informational message, which is measured in an unknown unit of measurement. From a mathematical point of view, information is a sequence of integers that are written into a vector. Numbers are the object number in the information basis. A vector is called an information invariant, since it does not depend on the physical nature of the basis objects. One and the same information message can be expressed in letters, words, sentences, files, pictures, notes, songs, video clips, any combination of all previously named.
The role of information in physics
Information is information about the surrounding world (object, process, phenomenon, event), which is an object of transformation (including storage, transmission, etc.) and is used to develop behavior, to make a decision, to control or for training.
The characteristic features of the information are as follows:
It is the most important resource of modern production: it reduces the need for land, labor, capital, and reduces the consumption of raw materials and energy. So, for example, having the ability to archive your files (i.e. having such information), you can not spend money on buying new floppy disks;
Information gives rise to new industries. For example, the invention of the laser beam was the reason for the emergence and development of the production of laser (optical) discs;
Information is a commodity, and the seller of information does not lose it after the sale. So, if a student informs his friend about the schedule of classes during the semester, he will not lose this data for himself;
Information adds value to other resources, in particular labor. Indeed, an employee with a higher education is valued more than with a secondary one.
As follows from the definition, three concepts are always associated with information:
The source of information is that element of the surrounding world (object, process, phenomenon, event), information about which is the object of transformation. So, the source of information that the reader of this textbook is currently receiving is informatics as a field of human activity;
A consumer of information is that element of the surrounding world that uses information (to develop behavior, to make a decision, to control or for training). The consumer of this information is the reader himself;
A signal is a material carrier that fixes information for transferring it from a source to a consumer. In this case, the signal is electronic. If the student takes this manual from the library, then the same information will be in hard copy. Once read and memorized by the student, the information will acquire another carrier - biological, when it is “recorded” in the student's memory.
The signal is the most important element in this circuit. The forms of its presentation, as well as the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information contained in it, which are important for the consumer of information, are discussed later in this section of the textbook. The main characteristics of a computer as the main tool for mapping an information source into a signal (link 1 in the figure) and “bringing” the signal to the consumer of information (link 2 in the figure) are given in the Computer part. The structure of the procedures that implement links 1 and 2 and constitute the information process is the subject of consideration in the section Information process.
Objects of the material world are in a state of continuous change, which is characterized by the exchange of energy of the object with the environment. A change in the state of one object always leads to a change in the state of some other object in the environment. This phenomenon, regardless of how, which states and which particular objects have changed, can be considered as a signal transmission from one object to another. Changing the state of an object when transmitting a signal to it is called signal registration.
A signal or a sequence of signals form a message that can be perceived by the recipient in one form or another, as well as in one or another volume. Information in physics is a term that qualitatively generalizes the concepts of "signal" and "message". If signals and messages can be quantified, then we can say that signals and messages are units of measurement of the amount of information. Message (signal) different systems interpreted in its own way. For example, a successively long and two short beeps in Morse code terminology is the letter de (or D), in the BIOS terminology from AWARD - a video card malfunction.
The role of information in mathematics
In mathematics, information theory (mathematical communication theory) is a section of applied mathematics that defines the concept of information, its properties and establishes the limiting relations for data transmission systems. The main sections of information theory are source coding (compressing coding) and channel (noise-immune) coding. Mathematics is more than a scientific discipline. It creates a single language for all Science.
The subject of research in mathematics is abstract objects: number, function, vector, set, and others. Moreover, most of them are introduced axiomatically (axiom), i.e. without any connection with other concepts and without any definition.
Information is not included in the study of mathematics. Nevertheless, the word "information" is used in mathematical terms - own information and mutual information, referring to the abstract (mathematical) part of information theory. However, in mathematical theory, the concept of "information" is associated with exclusively abstract objects - random variables, while in modern information theory this concept is considered much broader - as a property of material objects. The connection between these two identical terms is undeniable. It was the mathematical apparatus of random numbers that was used by the author of information theory Claude Shannon. He himself means by the term "information" something fundamental (irreducible). Shannon's theory intuitively assumes that information has content. Information reduces overall uncertainty and information entropy. The amount of information is measurable. However, he warns researchers against mechanical transfer of concepts from his theory to other areas of science.
"The search for ways to apply information theory in other fields of science is not reduced to a trivial transfer of terms from one field of science to another. This search is carried out in the long process of proposing new hypotheses and their experimental verification." K. Shannon.
The role of information in cybernetics
The founder of cybernetics, Nor bert Wiener, spoke about information like this:
Information is not matter or energy, information is information. "But the basic definition of information, which he gave in several of his books, is the following: information is a designation of the content that we received from the outside world, in the process of adapting us and our feelings.
Information is the basic concept of cybernetics, just as economic information is the basic concept of economic cybernetics.
There are many definitions of this term, they are complex and contradictory. The reason, obviously, is that various sciences are involved in the phenomenon of cybernetics, and cybernetics is only the youngest of them. Information science is the subject of study of such sciences as the science of management, mathematical statistics, genetics, the theory of mass information technology (print, radio, television), computer science, which deals with problems of scientific and technical information technology, etc. Finally, recent times philosophers show great interest in the problems of imaging: they tend to regard imaging as one of the basic universal properties of matter, associated with the concept of reflection. For all interpretations of the concept of I., it assumes the existence of two objects: the source of I. and the consumer (receiver) I. The transfer of I. from one to another occurs with the help of signals, which, generally speaking, may not have any physical connection with its meaning: this connection is determined by agreement. For example, a blow to the veche bell meant that it was necessary to gather for the square, but for those who did not know about this order, he did not inform any I.
In a veche bell situation, the person participating in the agreement on the meaning of the signal knows that at the moment there can be two alternatives: the veche meeting will take place or not. Or, to use the language of the theory of I., an undefined event (veche) has two outcomes. The received signal leads to a decrease in uncertainty: the person now knows that the event (veche) has only one outcome - it will take place. However, if it was known in advance that the veche would take place at such and such an hour, the bell did not say anything new. It follows from this that the less probable (i.e., more unexpected) the message, the more I. it contains, and vice versa, the greater the probability of an outcome before the event occurs, the less I. contains the signal. Approximately such reasoning was given in the 40s. XX century to the emergence of the statistical, or "classical", theory of I., which defines the concept of I. through the measure of reducing the uncertainty of knowledge about the occurrence of an event (such a measure was called entropy). At the origins of this science were N. Wiener, K. Shannon and Soviet scientists A.N. Kolmogorov, V.A.Kotelnikov, and others. They managed to derive the mathematical regularities for measuring the amount of I., and hence such concepts as the capacity of the channel I ., the capacity of memory information devices, etc., which served as a powerful stimulus to the development of cybernetics as a science and electronic computing technology as a practical application of the achievements of cybernetics.
As for the definition of the value and usefulness of I. for the recipient, there is still a lot of unresolved, unclear. Based on needs economic management and, consequently, economic cybernetics, then I. can be defined as all those information, knowledge, messages that help to solve a particular control problem (i.e., to reduce the uncertainty of its outcomes). Then some opportunities open up for evaluating I .: it is the more useful and valuable, the sooner or with lower costs it leads to the solution of the problem. The concept of I. is close to the concept of data. However, there is a difference between them: data are signals from which it is still necessary to extract I. Data processing is the process of bringing them to a suitable form.
The process of their transfer from source to consumer and perception as I. can be considered as passing through three filters:
Physical, or statistical (purely quantitative limitation on the bandwidth of the channel, regardless of the content of the data, that is, from the point of view of syntactics);
Semantic (selection of those data that can be understood by the recipient, i.e., correspond to the thesaurus of his knowledge);
Pragmatic (selection among understood information of those that are useful for solving a given problem).
This is well shown in a diagram taken from E.G. Yasin's book on economic information... Correspondingly, three aspects of the study of I. problems are distinguished - syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic.
In terms of content, I. is subdivided into socio-political, socio-economic (including economic I.), scientific and technical, and so on. In general, there are many classifications of I., they are built on different grounds. As a rule, due to the similarity of concepts, data classifications are constructed in the same way. For example, I. is subdivided into static (constant) and dynamic (variable), and the data is divided into constants and variables. Another division is primary, derivative, output I. (data are also classified). The third division is I. managing and informing. The fourth is redundant, useful and false. Fifth - full (solid) and selective. This thought of Wiener gives a direct indication of the objectivity of information, i.e. its existence in nature independently of the consciousness (perception) of a person.
Modern cybernetics defines objective information as an objective property of material objects and phenomena to generate a variety of states, which are transferred from one object (process) to another through fundamental interactions of matter, and are imprinted in its structure. A material system in cybernetics is considered as a set of objects that by themselves can be in different states, but the state of each of them is determined by the states of other objects in the system.
In nature, many states of a system represent information, the states themselves represent the primary code, or source code. Thus, each material system is a source of information. Cybernetics defines subjective (semantic) information as the meaning or content of a message.
The role of information in computer science
The subject of the study of science is precisely data: methods of their creation, storage, processing and transmission. Content (also: "content" (in context), "site content") is a term that means all types of information (both textual and multimedia - images, audio, video) that make up the content (visualized, for the visitor, content) of the web -site. It is used to separate the concept of information that makes up the internal structure of a page / site (code), from that which will eventually be displayed on the screen.
The word "information" comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, clarification, familiarization. The concept of "information" is basic in the course of computer science, but it is impossible to define it through other, more "simple" concepts.
The following approaches to the definition of information can be distinguished:
Traditional (everyday) - used in computer science: Information is information, knowledge, messages about the state of affairs that a person perceives from the outside world with the help of the senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch).
Probabilistic - used in information theory: Information is information about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and state, which reduce the degree of uncertainty and incompleteness of knowledge about them.
Information is stored, transmitted and processed in symbolic (sign) form. The same information can be presented in different forms:
Signed writing, consisting of various signs, among which there is a symbolic one in the form of text, numbers, specials. characters; graphic; tabular, etc .;
The form of gestures or signals;
Oral verbal form (conversation).
The presentation of information is carried out using languages \u200b\u200bas sign systems, which are built on the basis of a certain alphabet and have rules for performing operations on signs. Language is a certain sign system of information presentation. Exists:
Natural languages \u200b\u200bare spoken languages \u200b\u200bspoken and written. In some cases, spoken language can be replaced by the language of facial expressions and gestures, the language of special signs (for example, road);
Formal languages \u200b\u200bare special languages \u200b\u200bfor various areas of human activity, which are characterized by a rigidly fixed alphabet, more strict rules of grammar and syntax. This is the language of music (notes), the language of mathematics (numbers, mathematical signs), number systems, programming languages, etc. Any language is based on an alphabet - a set of symbols / signs. The total number of characters in the alphabet is usually called the power of the alphabet.
Storage media - a medium or physical body for the transmission, storage and reproduction of information. (These are electrical, light, thermal, sound, radio signals, magnetic and laser disks, prints, photographs, etc.)
Information processes are processes associated with the receipt, storage, processing and transmission of information (i.e. actions performed with information). Those. these are processes in the course of which the content of information or the form of its presentation changes.
To ensure the information process, a source of information, a communication channel and a consumer of information are needed. The source transmits (sends) information, and the receiver receives (perceives) it. The transmitted information reaches from the source to the receiver using a signal (code). Changing the signal provides information.
As an object of transformation and use, information is characterized by the following properties:
Syntax is a property that determines the way information is presented on a medium (in a signal). So, this information is presented on an electronic medium using a certain font. Here you can also consider such parameters of the presentation of information as font style and color, its size, line spacing, etc. Highlighting required parameters as the syntactic properties are obviously determined by the intended transformation method. For example, for a visually impaired person, font size and color are essential. If you intend to enter this text into a computer through a scanner, the paper size is important;
Semantics is a property that defines the meaning of information as the correspondence of a signal to the real world. So, the semantics of the signal "informatics" is in the definition given earlier. Semantics can be viewed as some kind of agreement, known to the consumer of information, about what each signal means (the so-called rule of interpretation). For example, it is the semantics of signals that a novice motorist studies, studying the rules of the road, learning road signs (in this case, the signals themselves are the signs). The semantics of words (signals) is learned by the learner of a foreign language. We can say that the meaning of teaching computer science is to study the semantics of various signals - the essence of the key concepts of this discipline;
Pragmatics is a property that determines the influence of information on consumer behavior. So the pragmatics of the information obtained by the reader of this textbook is, at least, in the successful passing of the computer science exam. I would like to believe that the pragmatics of this work will not be limited to this, and it will serve for further training and professional activity of the reader.
It should be noted that signals of different syntax may have the same semantics. For example, the signals “computer” and “computer” mean an electronic device for converting information. In this case, they usually talk about the synonymy of signals. On the other hand, one signal (i.e., information with the same syntactic property) may have different consumer pragmatics and different semantics. So, road sign, known as “brick” and having a very definite semantics (“no entry”), means a ban on entry for a motorist, but does not affect a pedestrian in any way. At the same time, the “key” signal can have different semantics: a treble clef, a spring clef, a key to open a lock, a key used in computer science to encode a signal in order to protect it from unauthorized access (in this case, they speak of a signal homonymy). There are signals - antonyms with opposite semantics. For example, "cold" and "hot", "fast" and "slow", etc.
The subject of study of the science of informatics is precisely data: methods of their creation, storage, processing and transmission. And the information itself, recorded in the data, its meaningful meaning is of interest to users of information systems who are specialists in various sciences and fields of activity: a physician is interested in medical information, a geologist - geological information, an entrepreneur - commercial information, etc. (including a computer scientist interested in information on working with data).
Semiotics - the science of information
Information cannot be imagined without receiving, processing, transmitting, etc., that is, outside the framework of information exchange. All acts of information exchange are carried out by means of symbols or signs with the help of which one system affects another. Therefore, the main knowledge that studies information is semiotics - the science of signs and sign systems in nature and society (theory of signs). In each act of information exchange, you can find three of its "participants", three elements: the sign, the object that it designates, and the recipient (user) of the sign.
Depending on the relationship between which elements are considered, semiotics is divided into three sections: syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Syntactics studies signs and the relationship between them. At the same time, it abstracts from the content of the mark and from its practical meaning for the recipient. Semantics studies the relationship between signs and the objects they designate, while distracting from the recipient of signs and the value of the latter: for him. It is clear that the study of the patterns of semantic display of objects in signs is impossible without taking into account and using the general patterns of construction of any sign systems studied by syntactics. Pragmatics studies the relationship between signs and their users. Within the framework of pragmatics, all the factors that distinguish one act of information exchange from another are studied, all issues of the practical results of using information and its value for the recipient.
This inevitably touches upon many aspects of the relationship between signs and with the objects they designate. Thus, three sections of semiotics correspond to three levels of abstraction (distraction) from the features of specific acts of information exchange. The study of information in all its diversity corresponds to the pragmatic level. Distracting from the recipient of information, excluding him from consideration, we move on to studying it at the semantic level. Abstraction from the content of signs, the analysis of information is transferred to the level of syntactics. Such interpenetration of the main sections of semiotics, associated with different levels of abstraction, can be represented using the diagram "Three sections of semiotics and their interrelation". The measurement of information is carried out, respectively, in three aspects: syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The need for such a different dimension of information, as will be shown below, is dictated by the practice of designing and organizing the work of information systems. Consider a typical production situation.
At the end of the shift, the site planner prepares data on the implementation of the production schedule. This data is sent to the information and computing center (ITC) of the enterprise, where it is processed, and in the form of reports on the state of production at the current moment is given to managers. The shop manager, based on the data received, makes a decision to change the production plan for the next planning period or to take any other organizational measures. Obviously, for the head of the shop, the amount of information that the summary contained depends on the amount of economic affect obtained from its use in decision-making, on how useful the information was. For the site planner, the amount of information in the same message is determined by the accuracy of its correspondence with the actual state of affairs on the site and the degree of surprise of the reported facts. The more unexpected they are, the faster you need to report them to the management, the more information there is in this message. For the employees of the ITC, the number of characters and the length of the message carrying information will be of paramount importance, since it is this that determines the loading time of computers and communication channels. At the same time, they are practically not interested in either the usefulness of information or the quantitative measure of the semantic value of information.
Naturally, when organizing a production management system, building models for choosing a solution, we will use the usefulness of information as a measure of the informativeness of messages. When building an accounting and reporting system that provides guidance for data on the progress of the production process, the novelty of the information obtained should be taken as a measure of the amount of information. The organization of procedures for mechanical processing of information requires measuring the volume of messages in the form of the number of processed characters. These three essentially different approaches to measuring information do not contradict or exclude each other. On the contrary, by measuring information in different scales, they allow a more complete and comprehensive assessment of the information content of each message and more efficiently organize a production management system. According to the apt expression of prof. NOT. Kobrinsky, when it comes to the rational organization of information flows, the quantity, novelty, usefulness of information are as interconnected as the quantity, quality and cost of products in production.
Information in the material world
Information is one of the general concepts associated with matter. Information exists in any material object in the form of a variety of its states and is transmitted from object to object in the process of their interaction. The existence of information as an objective property of matter logically follows from the known fundamental properties of matter - structure, continuous change (movement) and interaction of material objects.
The structural nature of matter manifests itself as an internal dismemberment of integrity, a natural order of connection of elements in the whole. In other words, any material object, from the subatomic particle Meta of the Universe (Big Bang) as a whole, is a system of interconnected subsystems. Due to continuous movement, understood in a broad sense as movement in space and development in time, material objects change their states. The states of objects also change when interacting with other objects. The set of states of a material system and all of its subsystems represents information about the system.
Strictly speaking, due to uncertainty, infinity, structural properties, the amount of objective information in any material object is infinite. This information is called complete. However, it is possible to distinguish structural levels with finite sets of states. Information that exists at the structural level with a finite number of states is called private. For private information, the meaning of the concept of the amount of information.
The choice of the unit of measurement for the amount of information follows from the given representation, which is logical and simple. Imagine a system that can be in only two equiprobable states. Let's assign one of them the code "1", and the other - "0". This is the minimum amount of information that the system can contain. It is a unit of measurement of information and is called a bit. There are other, more difficult to define, methods and units for measuring the amount of information.
Depending on the material form of the carrier, information can be of two main types - analog and discrete. Analog information changes continuously over time and takes values \u200b\u200bfrom a continuum of values. Discrete information changes at some points in time and takes values \u200b\u200bfrom a certain set of values. Any material object or process is the primary source of information. All its possible states make up the code of the information source. The instantaneous value of the states is represented as a symbol ("letter") of this code. In order for information to be transmitted from one object to another as to a receiver, it is necessary that there be some intermediate material medium interacting with the source. Such carriers in nature, as a rule, are rapidly spreading processes of the wave structure - cosmic, gamma and X-rays, electromagnetic and sound waves, potentials (and maybe not yet discovered waves) of the gravitational field. When electromagnetic radiation interacts with an object as a result of absorption or reflection, its spectrum changes, i.e. the intensities of some wavelengths change. Harmonics of sound vibrations also change during interactions with objects. Information is also transmitted during mechanical interaction, however, mechanical interaction, as a rule, leads to large changes in the structure of objects (up to their destruction), and the information is greatly distorted. Distortion of information during its transmission is called disinformation.
The transfer of source information to the structure of the medium is called encoding. This converts the source code to the media code. A medium with a source code transferred to it in the form of a medium code is called a signal. The signal receiver has its own set of possible states, which is called the receiver code. A signal interacting with a receiver object changes its states. The process of converting a signal code into a receiver code is called decoding. The transmission of information from a source to a receiver can be viewed as information interaction. Communication is fundamentally different from other interactions. With all other interactions of material objects, there is an exchange of matter and (or) energy. In this case, one of the objects loses matter or energy, and the other receives them. This property of interactions is called symmetry. During information interaction, the receiver receives information, and the source does not lose it. Information interaction is asymmetrical. Objective information itself is not material, it is a property of matter, such as structure, movement, and exists on material carriers in the form of its codes.
Information in nature
Wildlife is complex and varied. Sources and receivers of information in it are living organisms and their cells. An organism has a number of properties that distinguish it from inanimate material objects.
Basic:
Continuous exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment;
Irritability, the ability of the body to perceive and process information about changes in the environment and the internal environment of the body;
Excitability, the ability to respond to stimuli;
Self-organization, manifested as changes in the body to adapt to environmental conditions.
An organism viewed as a system has a hierarchical structure. This structure, relative to the organism itself, is subdivided into internal levels: molecular, cellular, organ level and, finally, the organism itself. However, the organism also interacts over organismic living systems, the levels of which are the population, ecosystem and all living nature as a whole (biosphere). Between all these levels, flows of not only matter and energy, but also information circulate. Informational interactions in living nature occur in the same way as in inanimate. At the same time, living nature in the process of evolution has created a wide variety of sources, carriers and receivers of information.
The reaction to the influences of the outside world is manifested in all organisms, since it is due to irritability. In higher organisms, adaptation to the external environment has the character of a complex activity, which is effective only with sufficiently complete and timely information about the environment. The senses, which include sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and vestibular apparatus, are the receivers of information from the external environment. In the internal structure of organisms, there are numerous internal receptors associated with the nervous system. The nervous system consists of neurons, the processes of which (axons and dendrites) are analogous to information transmission channels. The main organs providing storage and processing of information in vertebrates are the spinal cord and the brain. In accordance with the characteristics of the sense organs, the information perceived by the body can be classified as visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile.
Getting on the retina of the human eye, the signal excites its constituent cells in a special way. The nerve impulses of the cells are transmitted through axons to the brain. The brain remembers this sensation in the form of a certain combination of states of its constituent neurons. (The example continues in the section "Information in Human Society"). Accumulating information, the brain creates a connected information model of the surrounding world on its structure. In living nature, an important characteristic for an organism that is a receiver of information is its availability. The amount of information that the human nervous system is able to supply to the brain when reading texts is approximately 1 bit in 1/16 s.
The study of organisms is hindered by their complexity. The abstraction of a structure as a mathematical set, acceptable for inanimate objects, is hardly acceptable for a living organism, because to create a more or less adequate abstract model of an organism, it is necessary to take into account all the hierarchical levels of its structure. Therefore, it is difficult to introduce a measure of the amount of information. It is very difficult to determine the connections between the components of the structure. If it is known which body is the source of the information, what is the signal and what is the receiver?
Before the advent of computers, biology engaged in the study of living organisms used only qualitative, i.e. descriptive models. Consider in a qualitative model information links between the components of the structure is almost impossible. Electronic computing technology has made it possible to apply new methods in biological research, in particular, the method of machine modeling, which involves a mathematical description of known phenomena and processes occurring in the body, the addition of hypotheses about some unknown processes to them and the calculation of possible options for the behavior of the body. The resulting options are compared with the real behavior of the organism, which allows you to determine the truth or falsity of the hypotheses put forward. In such models, information interaction can also be taken into account. Informational processes that ensure the existence of life itself are extremely complex. And although it is intuitively clear that this property is directly related to the formation, storage and transmission of complete information about the structure of the organism, an abstract description of this phenomenon seemed until some time ago impossible. Nevertheless, the informational processes that ensure the existence of this property are partially disclosed due to the deciphering of the genetic code and reading the genomes of various organisms.
Information in human society
The development of matter in the process of movement is directed towards the complication of the structure of material objects. One of the most complex structures is the human brain. So far, this is the only structure known to us that has a property that a person himself calls consciousness. Speaking about information, we, as thinking beings, a priori mean that information, in addition to its presence in the form of signals we receive, also has some meaning. Forming in his consciousness a model of the surrounding world as an interconnected set of models of its objects and processes, a person uses precisely semantic concepts, not information. Meaning is the essence of any phenomenon that does not coincide with itself and connects it with the broader context of reality. The word itself directly indicates that the semantic content of information can only be formed by thinking receivers of information. In human society, it is not the information itself that is of decisive importance, but its semantic content.
Example (continued). Having experienced such a sensation, a person assigns the concept of "tomato" to the object, and the concept of "red color" to his state. In addition, his consciousness fixes the connection: "tomato" - "red". This is the meaning of the received signal. (Continued example: later in this section). The ability of the brain to create meaningful concepts and connections between them is the basis of consciousness. Consciousness can be viewed as a self-developing conceptual model of the surrounding world. Meaning is not information. Information exists only on a tangible medium. Human consciousness is considered immaterial. Meaning exists in the mind of a person in the form of words, images and sensations. A person can pronounce words not only out loud, but also “to himself”. He can also "silently" create (or remember) images and sensations. However, he can recover information corresponding to this meaning by saying words or writing them.
Example (continued). If the words "tomato" and "red" are the meaning of concepts, then where is the information? Information is contained in the brain in the form of certain states of its neurons. It is also contained in the printed text consisting of these words, and when the letters are encoded in a three-bit binary code, its number is 120 bits. If you say the words out loud, there will be much more information, but the meaning will remain the same. The greatest amount of information is carried by the visual image. This is reflected even in folklore - “it is better to see once than hear a hundred times.” The information thus recovered is called semantic information, since it encodes the meaning of some primary information (semantics). Having heard (or seen) a phrase uttered (or written) in a language that a person does not know, he receives information, but cannot determine its meaning. Therefore, for the transmission of the semantic content of information, some agreements are required between the source and the receiver on the semantic content of the signals, i.e. words. Such agreements can be reached through communication. Communication is one of essential conditions the existence of human society.
In the modern world, information is one of the most important resources and, at the same time, one of the driving forces of the development of human society. Information processes occurring in the material world, living nature and human society are studied (or at least taken into account) by all scientific disciplines from philosophy to marketing. The increasing complexity of scientific research tasks has led to the need to involve large teams of scientists of different specialties in their solution. Therefore, almost all theories discussed below are interdisciplinary. Historically, two complex branches of science - cybernetics and informatics - are directly involved in information research.
Modern cybernetics is a multi-disciplinary branch of science that studies super-complex systems, such as:
Human society (social cybernetics);
Economics (economic cybernetics);
Living organism (biological cybernetics);
The human brain and its function is consciousness (artificial intelligence).
Informatics, which emerged as a science in the middle of the last century, separated from cybernetics and is engaged in research in the field of methods for obtaining, storing, transmitting and processing semantic information. Both of these industries use several underlying scientific theories. These include information theory, and its sections - coding theory, algorithm theory and automata theory. Studies of the semantic content of information are based on a complex of scientific theories under the general name semiotics. Information theory is a complex, mainly mathematical theory that includes the description and evaluation of methods for extracting, transferring, storing and classifying information. Considers information carriers as elements of an abstract (mathematical) set, and interactions between carriers as a way of arranging elements in this set. This approach makes it possible to formally describe the information code, that is, to define an abstract code and study it with mathematical methods. For these studies, he uses the methods of probability theory, mathematical statistics, linear algebra, game theory and other mathematical theories.
The foundations of this theory were laid by the American scientist E. Hartley in 1928, who determined the measure of the amount of information for some communication problems. Later, the theory was significantly developed by the American scientist K. Shannon, the Russian scientists A.N. Kolmogorov, V.M. Glushkov and others. Modern information theory includes as sections the theory of coding, the theory of algorithms, the theory of digital automata (see below) and some others. There are also alternative information theories, for example, "Qualitative information theory" proposed by the Polish scientist M. Mazur. Any person is familiar with the concept of an algorithm without even knowing it. Here is an example of an informal algorithm: “Cut the tomatoes into slices or slices. Put chopped onions in them, pour over with vegetable oil, then sprinkle with finely chopped paprika, mix. Before use, sprinkle with salt, put in a salad bowl and garnish with parsley. " (Tomato salad).
The first rules in the history of mankind for solving arithmetic problems were developed by one of the famous scientists of antiquity Al - Khorezmi in the 9th century AD. In his honor, formalized rules for achieving a goal are called algorithms. The subject of the theory of algorithms is to find methods for constructing and evaluating effective (including universal) computational and control algorithms for information processing. To substantiate such methods, the theory of algorithms uses the mathematical apparatus of information theory. The modern scientific concept of algorithms as methods of information processing was introduced in the works of E. Post and A. Turing in the 20s of the twentieth century (Turing Machine). A great contribution to the development of the theory of algorithms was made by Russian scientists A. Markov (Markov's Normal Algorithm) and A. Kolmogorov. The theory of automata is a branch of theoretical cybernetics, in which mathematical models of actually existing or fundamentally possible devices that process discrete information at discrete times are studied.
The concept of an automaton originated in the theory of algorithms. If there are some universal algorithms for solving computational problems, then there must be devices (albeit abstract ones) to implement such algorithms. Actually, the abstract Turing machine, considered in the theory of algorithms, is at the same time an informally defined automaton. The theoretical substantiation of the construction of such devices is the subject of the theory of automata. The theory of automata uses the apparatus of mathematical theories - algebra, mathematical logic, combinatorial analysis, graph theory, probability theory, etc. The theory of automata, together with the theory of algorithms, is the main theoretical basis for creating electronic computers and automated control systems. Semiotics is a complex of scientific theories that study the properties of sign systems. The most significant results have been achieved in the section of semiotics - semantics. The subject of research of semantics is the semantic content of information.
A sign system is a system of concrete or abstract objects (signs, words), with each of which a certain meaning is associated in a certain way. It has been proven in theory that there can be two such comparisons. The first type of correspondence directly determines the material object that denotes this word and is called denotatum (or, in some works, - nominee). The second type of correspondence determines the meaning of a sign (word) and is called a concept. At the same time, such properties of comparisons as "meaning", "truth", "definability", "following", "interpretation", etc. are investigated. The apparatus of mathematical logic and mathematical linguistics is used for research. The ideas of semantics outlined by G.V. Leibniz and F. de Saussure in the 19th century, formulated and developed by C. Pierce (1839-1914), C. Morris (b. 1901), R. Carnap (1891-1970) and others. The main achievement of the theory is the creation of an apparatus of semantic analysis that allows the meaning of a text in a natural language in the form of a record in some formalized semantic (semantic) language. Semantic analysis is the basis for creating devices (programs) for machine translation from one natural language to another.
Information storage is carried out by transferring it to some material carriers. Semantic information recorded on a tangible storage medium is called a document. Humanity has learned to store information a long time ago. In the most ancient forms of storing information, the arrangement of objects was used - shells and stones in the sand, knots on a rope. A significant development of these methods was writing - a graphic representation of symbols on stone, clay, papyrus, paper. The invention of printing was of great importance in the development of this direction. Throughout its history, humanity has accumulated a huge amount of information in libraries, archives, periodicals and other written documents.
At the present time, storage of information in the form of sequences of binary symbols is of particular importance. A variety of storage devices are used to implement these methods. They are the central link in information storage systems. In addition to them, such systems use information retrieval tools ( search system), means of obtaining information (information and reference systems) and means of displaying information (output device). Formed for the purpose of information, such information systems form databases, data banks and a knowledge base.
The transfer of semantic information is the process of its spatial transfer from the source to the recipient (addressee). A person learned to transmit and receive information even before storing it. Speech is a method of transmission that our distant ancestors used in direct contact (conversation) - we still use it now. To transmit information over long distances, it is necessary to use much more complex information processes. To implement such a process, information must be formalized (presented) in some way. To represent information, various sign systems are used - sets of pre-agreed semantic symbols: objects, pictures, written or printed words of a natural language. Semantic information about an object, phenomenon or process presented with their help is called a message.
Obviously, in order to transmit a message over a distance, information must be transferred to some kind of mobile carrier. Media can move through space using vehicles, as is the case with letters sent by mail. This method ensures complete reliability of information transmission, since the addressee receives the original message, but it takes a significant amount of time for transmission. Since the middle of the 19th century, methods of transmitting information have become widespread, using a naturally spreading medium of information - electromagnetic oscillations (electrical oscillations, radio waves, light). The implementation of these methods requires:
Preliminary transfer of the information contained in the message to the carrier - encoding;
Ensuring the transmission of the signal thus obtained to the addressee via a special communication channel;
Reverse transformation of the signal code into the message code - decoding.
The use of electromagnetic carriers makes the delivery of a message to the addressee almost instantaneous, however, it requires additional measures to ensure the quality (reliability and accuracy) of the transmitted information, since real communication channels are subject to natural and artificial interference. Devices that implement the data transmission process form communication systems. Depending on the way the information is presented, communication systems can be subdivided into sign (telegraph, telefax), sound (telephone), video and combined systems (television). The most developed communication system in our time is the Internet.
Data processing
Since information is not material, its processing consists of various transformations. Any transfer of information from a carrier to another carrier can be referred to as processing processes. The information to be processed is called data. The main type of processing of primary information received by various devices is transformation into a form that ensures its perception by the human sense organs. So, photographs of space obtained in x-rays, are converted into ordinary color photographs using special spectrum converters and photographic materials. Night vision devices convert infrared (thermal) images into visible images. For some communication and control tasks, conversion of analog information is necessary. For this, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal converters are used.
The most important type of processing of semantic information is the definition of the meaning (content), which is contained in a message. Unlike primary semantic information, it does not have statistical characteristics, that is, a quantitative measure - either there is a meaning or it is not. And how much of it, if it exists, is impossible to establish. The meaning contained in the message is described in artificial language, reflecting the semantic connections between the words of the source text. The vocabulary of such a language, called a thesaurus, is in the message receiver. The meaning of words and phrases of the message is determined by assigning them to certain groups of words or phrases, the meaning of which has already been established. Thus, the thesaurus allows you to establish the meaning of the message and, at the same time, is replenished with new semantic concepts. The described type of information processing is used in information retrieval systems and machine translation systems.
One of the widespread types of information processing is the solution of computational problems and problems of automatic control using computers. Information processing is always done with some purpose. To achieve it, the order of actions with information, leading to a given goal, must be known. This procedure is called an algorithm. In addition to the algorithm itself, you also need some device that implements this algorithm. In scientific theories, such a device is called an automaton. It should be noted as the most important feature of information that, due to the asymmetry of information interaction, new information appears during information processing, and the original information is not lost.
Analog and digital information
Sound is wave vibrations in a medium, for example in air. When a person speaks, the vibrations of the ligaments in the throat are converted into wave vibrations of the air. If we consider sound not as a wave, but as oscillations at one point, then these oscillations can be represented as air pressure changing over time. With a microphone, pressure changes can be captured and converted into electrical voltage. The air pressure has been converted into voltage fluctuations.
Such a transformation can occur according to various laws, most often the transformation occurs according to a linear law. For example, for this:
U (t) \u003d K (P (t) -P_0),
where U (t) is the electrical voltage, P (t) is the air pressure, P_0 is the average air pressure, and K is the conversion factor.
Both electrical voltage and air pressure are continuous functions over time. Functions U (t) and P (t) are information about throat ligaments vibrations. These functions are continuous and such information is called analogue. Music is a special case of sound and it can also be represented as a function of time. This will be an analogue presentation of the music. But music is also recorded in the form of notes. Each note has a duration that is a multiple of a predetermined duration, and a pitch (do, re, mi, f, g, etc.). If we convert this data into numbers, then we get a digital representation of the music.
Human speech is also a special case of sound. It can also be represented in analog form. But just as music can be broken down into notes, speech can be broken down into letters. If each letter is given its own set of numbers, then we get a digital representation of speech. The difference between analog information and digital is that analog information is continuous, and digital is discrete. The transformation of information from one type to another, depending on the type of conversion, is called differently: simply "conversion", such as digital to analog conversion, or analog to digital conversion; complex transformations are called "coding", for example, delta coding, entropy coding; the conversion between characteristics such as amplitude, frequency or phase is called "modulation", for example, amplitude-frequency modulation, pulse-width modulation.
Usually, analog conversions are fairly simple and easy to handle. various devices invented by man. A tape recorder converts the magnetization on the film into sound, the recorder converts the sound into magnetization on the film, a video camera converts light into magnetization on the film, an oscilloscope converts an electric voltage or current into an image, etc. Converting analog information to digital is much more difficult. The machine fails to complete some transformations or succeeds with great difficulty. For example, converting speech to text, or converting a concert recording to sheet music, and even by its nature a digital representation: it is very difficult for a machine to convert text on paper into the same text in computer memory.
Why then use digital representation of information if it is so difficult? The main advantage of digital information over analog is noise immunity. That is, in the process of copying information digital information is copied as it is, it can be copied almost an infinite number of times, while analogue information becomes noisy during copying, its quality deteriorates. Usually, analog information can be copied no more than three times. If you have a two-cassette audio tape recorder, you can make such an experiment, try to rewrite the same song several times from cassette to cassette, after several such re-recordings you will notice how much the recording quality has deteriorated. The information on the cassette is stored in analog form. You can rewrite music in mp3 format as many times as you like, and the quality of the music does not deteriorate. The information in the mp3 file is stored digitally.
Amount of information
A person or some other receiver of information, having received a portion of information, resolves some uncertainty. Let's take the same tree as an example. When we saw the tree, we resolved a number of uncertainties. We learned the height of the tree, the type of tree, the density of foliage, the color of the leaves, and if it is a fruit tree, then we saw the fruits on it, how ripe they are, etc. Before we looked at the tree, we did not know all this, after we looked at the tree, we resolved the uncertainty - we received information.
If we go out to a meadow and look at it, then we will receive information of a different kind, how big the meadow is, how tall the grass is and what color the grass is. If a biologist comes to the same meadow, then, among other things, he will be able to find out: what kinds of grasses grow in the meadow, what type of this meadow, he will see which flowers have bloomed, which ones will only bloom, whether the meadow is suitable for grazing cows, etc. That is, he will receive more information than we do, since before he looked at the meadow, he had more questions, the biologist will resolve more uncertainties.
The more uncertainty was resolved in the process of obtaining information, the more information we received. But this is a subjective measure of the amount of information, and we would like to have an objective measure. There is a formula for calculating the amount of information. We have some uncertainty, and we have N-th number of cases of uncertainty resolution, and each case has a certain probability of resolution, then the amount of information received can be calculated using the following formula, which Shannon suggested to us:
I \u003d - (p_1 \\ log_ (2) p_1 + p_2 \\ log_ (2) p_2 + ... + p_N \\ log_ (2) p_N), where
I - amount of information;
N is the number of outcomes;
p_1, p_2, ..., p_N are the probabilities of the outcome.
The amount of information is measured in bits - an abbreviation for the English words BInary digiT, which means a binary digit.
For equiprobable events, the formula can be simplified:
I \u003d \\ log_ (2) N, where
I - amount of information;
N is the number of outcomes.
Let's take a coin for example and drop it on the table. She will fall either heads or tails. We have 2 equally probable events. After we tossed a coin, we got \\ log_ (2) 2 \u003d 1 bit of information.
Let's try to find out how much information we get after we roll the dice. The cube has six faces - six equally probable events. We get: \\ log_ (2) 6 \\ approx 2.6. After we rolled the dice on the table, we received approximately 2.6 bits of information.
The probability that we will see a Martian dinosaur when we leave the house is one in ten billion. How much information do we get about the Martian dinosaur after we leave the house?
- \\ left (((1 \\ over (10 ^ (10))) \\ log_2 (1 \\ over (10 ^ (10))) + \\ left ((1 - (1 \\ over (10 ^ (10))) ) \\ right) \\ log_2 \\ left ((1 - (1 \\ over (10 ^ (10)))) \\ right)) \\ right) \\ approx 3,4 \\ cdot 10 ^ (- 9) bits.
Let's say we threw 8 coins. We have 2 ^ 8 options for falling coins. So after tossing coins we get \\ log_2 (2 ^ 8) \u003d 8 bits of information.
When we ask a question and can equally likely get an answer "yes" or "no", then after answering the question we get one bit of information.
Surprisingly, if we apply Shannon's formula for analog information, then we get an infinite amount of information. For example, the voltage at a point in an electrical circuit can take an equiprobable value from zero to one volt. The number of outcomes we have is equal to infinity and, substituting this value into the formula for equiprobable events, we get infinity - an infinite amount of information.
Now I will show you how to code War and Peace with just one risk on any metal rod. Let's encode all the letters and signs found in War and Peace with two-digit numbers - they should be enough for us. For example, the letter "A" will be given the code "00", the letter "B" - the code "01" and so on, we will encode punctuation marks, Latin letters and numbers. Let's recode "War and Peace" using this code and get a long number, for example, such 70123856383901874 ..., add a comma and zero before this number (0.70123856383901874 ...). The result is a number from zero to one. We put the risk on a metal rod so that the ratio of the left side of the rod to the length of this rod is exactly our number. Thus, if we suddenly want to read War and Peace, we simply measure the left side of the rod to the risks and the length of the entire rod, divide one number by another, get the number and recode it back into letters (“00” in “A” "01" in "B", etc.).
In reality, we will not be able to do this, since we will not be able to determine the lengths with infinite precision. Some engineering problems prevent us from increasing the measurement accuracy, and quantum physics shows us that after a certain limit, quantum laws will already interfere with us. Intuitively, we understand that the lower the measurement accuracy, the less information we receive, and the higher the measurement accuracy, the more information we receive. Shannon's formula is not suitable for measuring the amount of analog information, but there are other methods for this, which are discussed in Information Theory. In computer technology, a bit corresponds to the physical state of the information carrier: magnetized - not magnetized, there is a hole - no hole, charged - not charged, reflects light - does not reflect light, high electrical potential - low electrical potential. In this case, one state is usually denoted by the number 0, and the other - by the number 1. Any information can be encoded with a sequence of bits: text, image, sound, etc.
Along with a bit, a value called a byte is often used, usually 8 bits. And if a bit allows you to choose one equally probable option out of two possible ones, then a byte is 1 out of 256 (2 ^ 8). It is also customary to use larger units to measure the amount of information:
1 KB (one kilobyte) 210 bytes \u003d 1024 bytes
1 MB (one megabyte) 210 KB \u003d 1024 KB
1 GB (one gigabyte) 210 MB \u003d 1024 MB
In reality, the SI prefixes kilo-, mega-, giga- should be used for multipliers of 10 ^ 3, 10 ^ 6 and 10 ^ 9, respectively, but historically the practice of using factors with powers of two has developed.
A Shannon bit and a bit that is used in computer technology are the same if the probabilities of occurrence of a zero or one in a computer bit are equal. If the probabilities are not equal, then the amount of information according to Shannon becomes less, we saw this on the example of the Martian dinosaur. The computerized amount of information gives an upper estimate of the amount of information. Volatile memory, after energizing it, is usually initialized with some value, for example, all ones or all zeros. It is clear that after energizing the memory, there is no information there, since the values \u200b\u200bin the memory cells are strictly defined, there is no uncertainty. The memory can store in itself a certain amount of information, but after power is applied to it, there is no information in it.
Disinformation - deliberately false information provided to the enemy or business partner for more effective conduct of hostilities, cooperation, verification of information leakage and the direction of its leakage, identification potential clients The process of manipulating information is also called disinformation (also misinformed), such as: misleading someone by providing incomplete information or complete, but no longer necessary information, distorting the context, distorting part of the information.
The goal of such influence is always the same - the opponent must act as the manipulator needs. The act of the object against which the disinformation is directed may consist in making a decision necessary for the manipulator or in refusing to make a decision that is unfavorable for the manipulator. But in any case, the ultimate goal is the action that will be taken by the opponent.
Disinformation, therefore, is a product of human activity, an attempt to create a false impression and, accordingly, push to desired actions and / or inaction.
Types of disinformation:
Misleading a specific person or group of people (including the whole nation);
Manipulation (actions of one person or a group of persons);
Creation of public opinion about a problem or object.
Misleading is nothing more than outright deception, the provision of false information. Manipulation is a method of influence aimed directly at changing the direction of people's activity. The following levels of manipulation are distinguished:
Strengthening the values \u200b\u200bthat are beneficial to the manipulator (ideas, attitudes) existing in the minds of people;
Partial change of views on this or that event or circumstance;
A radical change in attitudes.
The creation of public opinion is the formation in society of a certain attitude towards the chosen problem.
Sources and links
ru.wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia Wikipedia
youtube.com - YouTube video hosting
images.yandex.ua - yandex pictures
google.com.ua - google pictures
ru.wikibooks.org - wikibooks
inf1.info - Planet of Informatics
old.russ.ru - Russian Journal
shkolo.ru - Information guide
5byte.ru - Informatics website
ssti.ru - Information technology
klgtu.ru - Informatics
informatika.sch880.ru - site of the teacher of informatics O.V. Podvintseva
bibliofond.ru - electronic library Bibliofond
life-prog.ru - programming
