What definitions today does not have the term "information"! They say that there are more than a hundred. What does it mean? Probably, the fact that specialists studying this term do not always fully understand the subject of their research. In order to understand what this word actually means, one should turn to its etymology.
From the depths of centuries
Linguists believe that its roots go back to the East and are derived from the Arabic verb “yaraf”, meaning “to know, to know.” The ancient Greeks did not understand how to correctly read the given word, therefore, just in case, they read it in both directions. So it turned out: shape and morph. Synonyms Another education from: marifa, is "what I know." It displays a very significant difference between the two types of information, often not distinguishable by specialists. Information as a distinction between things and concepts, and information as a knowledge. But let’s not go so deep into the meaning of this word. Perhaps much more important today, what role this term began to play in our world. And its value cannot be underestimated.
New time - new terms
Information is more than just knowledge. Possession of it provides tremendous opportunities both in business and in politics. She became the most important resource of the state. Information is evaluated in the same way (if not higher), as well as the main natural, economic, labor, material resources. A number of psychologists argue that intelligent humanity is slowly but surely turning into information. And by the way, together with the traditional method of managing society (the same administrative and organizational) and individuals, a special method of centralized influence on the population is gaining popularity - the method of information management. And indeed. With the development of the media, and in particular the Internet, a situation has developed that information is an instrument of influence on the minds of consumers. Therefore, she began to meet us everywhere. There are so many of it that consumers have to filter it daily, filtering out “garbage”. Otherwise, you can fall under its influence and turn into a zombie, completely controlled creature.
In our fast-moving century, the concept of “entropy of information” has appeared. What is it, you ask? This is a criterion for the randomness of information, the uncertainty of the appearance of a certain symbol of the primary alphabet. In the absence of information loss, it is numerically equal to the amount of information per character of the transmitted message.
Information is more than just power
In the West, the significance of information has long been appreciated. The United States administration sees it at the state level as a strategic resource. It can be obtained as a result of data processing and analysis using a specialized analysis system. Naturally, information security in the United States is at a very high level. Perhaps the most secret services — the FBI and the CIA — are constantly doing this. Thus, in the 21st century, information is both a state’s resource and a subject of bargaining with other states. It has become as expensive as oil or gold.