James Gleick: ‘Information poses as many challenges as opportunities’

Here’s a paradox: we live in an “information age” and yet information is a maddeningly elusive concept. We habitually confuse it with data, on the one hand, and with knowledge on the other. And yet it’s neither. There’s an arcane mathematical discipline called “information theory” that underpins all digital communications nowadays and yet resolutely disdains to make any connection between information and meaning. It would take a brave author to pursue such an elusive quarry. Or a foolhardy one.James Gleick is an accomplished stalker of mysterious ideas. His first book, Chaos (1987), provided a compelling introduction to a new science of disorder, unpredictability and complex systems. His new book, The Information, is in the same tradition. It’s a learned, discursive, sometimes wayward exploration of a very complicated subject.The subtitle, A History, A Theory, A Flood, gives the game away. This is really three books: one is about the history of information from earliest times to the present day. It opens with a memorable, beautifully written chapter about the “talking drums” of the Congo and explains how a drum with just two tones was used to communicate complex information quickly over large distances. After that we embark on a journey through the history of writing, the rise of the dictionary, the growth of English, the origins of programming and the arrival of Samuel Morse and his amazing electric telegraph.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/10/james-gleick-information-interview