What does technology mean by information? This question interests many. To begin with, this is an abstract concept, but a real one. A person forms his own idea of what it is in a particular situation. A technical system receives information as signals of the nature to which its sensors, input and control devices are configured.
Creating a technical system, a person narrows the concept to the limit that is sufficient for this system to work and manage it. A person expands his knowledge and skills, trying to perceive information, analyze it and make decisions.
Man and technology
To create a technical system, a person uses information. The choice of what should be used depends on the purpose, scope, social significance and many other factors. Information "determines" what should be created and how it will be created. Result: the technical system “takes” the minimum necessary amount of specific information, data at the input, and produces the necessary result at the output.
To organize his behavior, a person uses information, improves his knowledge and skills and, making a decision, raises his knowledge and skills to a higher level.
Using technical systems in everyday life, at work or on vacation, a person imagines how they can be improved, what should be added to the functional, how the logic of the operation of technical devices should be changed and does so. Here, information is understood to mean data and signals at the input, control tools and control devices in the process, data or products at the output.
A person creates and manages technical systems to achieve the desired result. Any technical system, even a hammer, chisel or screwdriver, "develops", and the dynamics of this development are determined by a person, perceiving and analyzing the flows of information, data, but not necessarily exclusively with hammers, chisels or screwdrivers.
Information not directly related to a technical system may be directly related to it. This is a feature of intelligence: the transformation of knowledge from one area of application to another.
Technical systems and people
When a person is driving a car, motorcycle, airplane or spacecraft, the technique controls the person. The forces of nature and objective physical laws limit the will and ability of man to perceive information and its application.
Knowledge and skills help the driver make the right decision in a difficult traffic situation and avoid an accident. But until the right decision is made, several vehicles will “teach” the driver how to behave on the road for several years. Knowing the rules of the road is not enough, you need to feel the car and be able to understand everything that it "has to say."
The Internet is hardly a technical system. This is more reminiscent of a conglomerate of technology and society, but in any case, this system, once created by man, received an objectively substantiated right to independent development.
Modern high technologies are actually not as high as the authoritative conglomerate of specialists and engineers declares. In any field of application of knowledge, there is a lack of development of science and practice. To this day, a person perceives, analyzes and uses various information given to create rigid, reinforced concrete structures. In technology, information is usually understood as known, demanded and studied. Everything new is subject to research.
Machine tool, conveyor or production of washing powder; nuclear power plant or spacecraft - this is understandable. Here, everything must accurately execute a specific functional, everything must have the correct forms and adhere to exact operation algorithms. But programming and information technology cannot be pushed into rigid formal frames.
Real life: family and work
In technology, information is commonly understood as signals, messages, and environmental influences. Creating tools and equipment, designing the interior and household items, building roads and communications, a person is guided by accumulated experience and technical documentation. The range of information used is supplemented and specified by the knowledge and skills of a particular specialist (team of specialists).
The goal of creating a product for domestic or industrial use is formed on the basis of what has already been done and what is needed at a given standard of living (everyday life, family) and under the current conditions of production (equipment, organization of activities).
There is no particular difference between the use of information in everyday life or in production. The subjects, contents and structure of the flow of information and data differ, which leads to the adoption of the right decision, the manufacture of the right subject or the necessary action.
The life and life of one specialist influences another. Not necessarily they live or work nearby. The information flow, like air, spreads quickly and is “absorbed” instantly. There would be a desire and an objective necessity; he will surely find his consumer.
Life is so arranged: information flows circulate outside the consciousness of a particular person, but everyone receives from them what they are able to understand and what they need. Information and its recipient always find each other, and the source always “radiates” it into the common space, even when it means a specific addressee.
Virtual Space: Knowledge and Skills
Most people swim in the ocean of information the way it turns out. This is normal. There is a family, children, work, obligations. Something needs to be read, something can be heard on the street. Gossip, news and the “productive” shaft of “thoughtful” spam from mass media producers. You need to filter the information flow. It is important to accept only what is essential, objective and necessary.
The case when information is understood as information possessing novelty is a dissertation, term paper or thesis. The consumer of information given here is the person who needs to show other people (academic council, examination committee) that work was done to analyze the sources and works of predecessors. As a result, the novelty and relevance of one's own work or research is shown.
When information is understood as information about what has been done by competitors, is industrial espionage or an attempt to collect certain data and design a better product than there is on the market. There is a goal to improve the functionality, appearance, reliability or other qualities of the product.
If in technology information is understood as messages, then we are talking about how to improve their transmission, integrity, speed or other characteristics. If the message refers to a person (telephone, Internet), we are talking about symbolic, visual or audio data. This is volume, one quality. If the message is addressed to the robot or machine, it is a signal, a digital code, a minimum volume and maximum speed. Message, message - discord, but the applied knowledge and skills in all cases are equivalent.
The specialist does not swim (like an ordinary person) in the ocean of information, he is surrounded by a system of filters that selectively and accurately present him the necessary data. Information flows in the mind of a specialist are data, that is, a formal idea of information.
Classic Information Process
In technology, information is understood to mean something specific: pulsed or continuous. More commonly used are the terms “signal”, “data” or “control”.
The machine for primary processing of wood is a bed, a mechanism for fixing the material, a set of saws and two buttons: turn on and off. A more developed model has the ability to control the sawing process, you can change the direction of movement of the material, the thickness of the board, the quality of processing, etc.
There are many models of woodworking machines and everyone has a specific functional, strictly defined capabilities. Information necessary for the machine to work: the position of the working parts and a set of buttons (levers) that initiate specific processes.
The assembly line for car assembly is multifunctional. Modern automotive manufacturing has moved workers off the assembly line to control operators. Only robots, multifunctional machines and machine tools remained on the assembly lines. Modern automobile production can assemble various cars with certain changes in the production cycle. Here, the information process lies in a wider range than that of a woodworking machine.
The financial department of a large corporation is equipped with computer equipment, has Internet access, and qualified specialists work in it. If you do not take into account social relations that are irrelevant and characteristic of any work team, especially creative, then the information process to achieve the desired result is a struggle for the priorities and value of knowledge (skills) of employees. Everyone seeks to make a significant contribution to the common cause.
In all cases: the information process is controllable and manageable. If the task is to optimize and reliably evaluate each solution, it should be transformed into a sequence of actions that can be visually observed. This kind of solution has been implemented for a long time. There are numerous software to automate various work, performing both logical and mathematical calculations.
The information process can be observed, controlled, controlled. There is enough knowledge to carry out traditional works of this kind, but one should never forget about chance and an external factor. Very often, new ideas are not connected with the classical tradition and lie outside the ordinary information processes. To notice this on time is very promising and productive.
Formalization and accuracy of data
"Information" and "data" are synonymous words (in a certain sense). But the first is abstraction in dynamics. The second is real structure and content. In technology, information is understood to mean that which is relevant (in demand), and they call it data, messages, signals, a control cycle. When creating a machine, conveyor, car or spacecraft, technical documentation is used - the result of decades of application of the knowledge of many specialists, experience in testing and practical use.
In order to build an airplane or ship today, it is necessary to observe many provisions that few people review, optimize or apply at a qualitatively higher level. Only the design of the ship, the cabin, the number of passengers, navigation devices and the like is changing. Probably in vain, but it’s difficult to do otherwise.
In technology, information is understood as the answer. The test signal and reaction to it are unambiguously connected and do not allow changes. If it has worked on all the signals and received the expected responses, the device, apparatus, etc. can be used further. Maintenance or repairs may be delayed.
In programming, everything can be dynamic. This is a significant difference. But programming today is an add-on to "reinforced concrete yesterday." In technology, information is understood as an answer accurate, reliable and unambiguous. In the program, it can be different: it all depends on the source data and the level of foresight of the programmer. All possible options have not been taken into account and the program will behave as "it pleases." But this is less trouble.
It is sad that dynamic programming capabilities are leveled out by classical ideas about information and its processing. It has become so customary to use the “experience of ancestors” in its original form that it is virtually impossible to eliminate the inertia of a modern developer.
The developer uses, libraries, modules, the achievements of past years, various specialists like a machine, equipment, conveyor, and does not even think that much can be rewritten differently. There is already enough knowledge and skills to bring the operating system, tool, browser or other program to the consumer in a completely new state.
Objectivity and credibility
In technology, information is understood as follows: choose one answer and it will be correct. You just need to view reliable data. It is not difficult to make a decision.
The search results from a popular search engine always have a lot of answers, and there is nothing to choose from. If in real life, in real production, there is a technique, there are questions of its operation, then get an adequate answer from the many possible options. There is accompanying documentation, technical descriptions, maintenance regulations.
On the Internet, a lot of people write something. There are many web resources that manipulate information, attract rewriters and write about the same thing, but in different words. Very few indicate the exact date the data was created, their source, the author and gives objective information: what can be trusted and what not.
In the theory of information, information is understood as information possessing novelty. But what is it? What is novelty? What about information theory? What is the understanding of novelty when the theory of information is an even more abstract concept than the information itself.
As for the information, there are exactly as many opinions as there are existing authoritative specialists. If we take into account the opinions of scientists who are far from practice, if we familiarize ourselves with the opinions of experts competent in various eyes, we can objectively say that there is a theory of information, but it has not yet been formed as a theory and as a science.
The reliability of the information flow that is taken from the book is much higher than that obtained from a "reputable" Internet source.
Out of scope data
There is nothing easier to say: in the theory of information, information is understood as information, messages, data, signals, waves and fields. Everything will be correct, including such a source as fields. But the term field is physics. This is a special informational phenomenon that (magnetic, gravitational, spiritual, etc.) cannot be seen.
The flight of a particle, for which physicists build kilometer accelerators, powerful colliders, no one has ever seen and will not see soon. Actually, a particle, like an atom and an electron, is a figment of fantasy, the result of a theory. The dispute between waves and quanta is the best proof that the information space in physics is still very far from perfect. In technology, information is understood as signals perceived and accessible to observation, data, messages.
The periodic table, the experiments and real results of Michurin are a fact: folding, logical, practical. But is it really so?
Astronomers described the galaxy, compiled star registries, and opened a dossier for each. Every year, information about aliens, dangerous meteorites and the threat to life on earth leaks into the press. This is a "universal" mentality. Physicists counted dozens of varieties of elementary particles and gave each a portrait with characteristics.
If electricity and magnetism can be really measured and used, then with gravity, elementary particles, black holes and DNA, everything is much more complicated.
It is generally impossible to discover what another medium (psychic) sees. Meanwhile, mystical moments are reality. This is also information and it is also characterized by reliability and objectivity.
Information Above Information
Mathematics is not only a wonderful science, but also really practical. Probability theory is desirable only for sincerely enthusiastic scientists. But its results deserve attention.
In technology, information is understood as real data that is used to control, present the result, or are the content of the information process. Analysis of data sets by analytical methods - new information, new data.
Probability theory is less original and more practical than Einstein’s ideas. She gives a result. The fact that in technology information is understood by its developers, manufacturers or consumers is one thing, this is apparently applicable and in demand. Probability theory for each of these positions can provide new data, new information.
Analysts, analyzing the multiple applications of the device, product, machine tool, food product, convincingly show its qualities and properties that are visible only on a mass scale.
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