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The Information

James Gleick

ScienceTechnologySystems & Complexity
Publish date
2011
Publisher
Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc.
Description
From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory. Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live. A New York Times Notable Book A Los Angeles Times and Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of the Year Winner of the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
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Books cited in The Information

Suggested by AI, not verified against the full text. Check the original book before using them as a source.

  1. What Is Life?

    Erwin Schrödinger

    Citation

    Introduced the concept of negative entropy and genetic information preceding the discovery of DNA.

    High relevanceExplore

  2. Orality and Literacy

    Walter J. Ong

    Citation

    Examines how the invention of writing radically reorganized human consciousness and knowledge storage.

    High relevanceExplore

  3. The Mathematical Theory of Communication

    Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver

    Citation

    Provides the foundational mathematical framework for quantifying information and entropy explored throughout the book.

    High relevanceExplore

  4. The Selfish Gene

    Richard Dawkins

    Citation

    Cited for introducing the concept of the meme as an evolving unit of cultural information.

    High relevanceExplore

  5. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

    Norbert Wiener

    Citation

    Explores feedback loops and the intersection of communication, control systems, and human thought.

    High relevanceExplore

  6. The Computer and the Brain

    John von Neumann

    Citation

    Cited regarding digital versus analog processing and information architecture in brains and machines.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  7. Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

    Charles Babbage

    Citation

    Details the conception and mechanics of the Difference and Analytical Engines.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  8. Preface to Plato

    Eric A. Havelock

    Citation

    Analyzes the transition from oral poetic tradition to literate, abstract thought in ancient Greece.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  9. Principia Mathematica

    Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

    Citation

    Referenced in the history of symbolic logic, axiomatic systems, and Gödelian undecidability.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  10. Ficciones

    Jorge Luis Borges

    Citation

    Referenced for 'The Library of Babel', illustrating an infinite, combinatorial universe of information.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  11. Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

    Douglas Hofstadter

    Citation

    Explores self-reference, logic, computation, and information networks across disciplines.

    Medium relevanceExplore

  12. A Budget of Paradoxes

    Augustus De Morgan

    Citation

    Referenced during discussions of early mathematical logic and communication eccentricities.

    Medium relevanceExplore

There may be more citations. We show up to 12 per book to keep the list manageable.

Recommendations

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    Provides a rigorous philosophical foundation for conceptualizing information as a fundamental reality.

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