A while back Michael Lesk wrote a paper called “How Much Information is There in the World?” That work has now been updated by a team led by Peter Lyman and Hal Varian: “How Much Information 2003?”
Lots to say about this kind of bean counting, obviously, but the research is fascinating and quite, um, informative . . .
My own favorite definition of information, incidentally, comes from something I once read, and now can no longer find, by Umberto Eco: information is the confirmation of unlikely facts (I’m paraphrasing). Of course that’s based on classic Shannon . . . but my own inability to locate the quotation is a perfect example. If you were to tell me (as I devoutly hope someone will) that this is from page 83 of such and such a text, well, that would be information because it’s unlikely the passage was on page 83 of such and such a text, as opposed to page 82 or page 84 or page 83 of some other text or page 82 or 84 of some other text . . . and so forth.
Posted by mgk at October 31, 2003 12:49 PM