Hans C Von Baeyer

Information, the new language of science

As we are always being told, we are constantly bombarded with information. We have Information technology and Information science to try to deal with it. Von Baeyer's book concerns the philosophy of information - it looks at how we are beginning to see the world in terms of it. The preface describes the inspiration from John AWheeler's ideas of 'It from Bit', that is the idea that reality can be thought of as pure information. The book is aimed at the non-technical reader. Some of the concepts may be challenging, but no prior knowledge is required of any of the subjects covered.

Unfortunately the book doesn't start very well. Rather than giving a gentle introduction to the subject, the author seems to be trying to show what a difficult subject this is. Don't worry if you find this a struggle as happily the rest of the book is much better. Part two deals with areas such as Entropy, Relativity and genome sequencing, finishing with Landauer's ideas that 'Information is Physical'. Part three starts by describing some of the ideas of quantum theory, and proceeds on to quantum computers, finishing with an account of black holes.. The last part consists of two chapters, one looking at alternative measures of information, and the last on the Zeilinger's ideas describing quantum theory in terms of information

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Paperback 272 pages
ISBN: 0753817829
Salesrank: 429233
Weight:0.57 lbs

Published: 2004 Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

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Paperback 272 pages
ISBN: 0753817829
Salesrank: 391324
Weight:0.57 lbs

Published: 2004 Phoenix

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Paperback 272 pages
ISBN: 0753817829
Salesrank: 456821
Weight:0.57 lbs

Published: 2004 McArthur & Company / Not Applicable

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Book Description
The nuclear age has morphed into the information age. Information is a cool, sexy word: using it makes you feel smart. It proves that you are plugged in and technologically sophisticated. Al Gore cruises along the information highway, while media gurus ventilate about the information explosion and hucksters tout information technology. Information is unquestionably in. But what is information? Is it a scientifically useful concept? The slow emergence of the notion of information during the past half-century contrasts sharply with the birth of the energy concept a century-and-a-half ago. Then, in the brief span of twenty years, energy was invented, defined and established as a key element of physics, and more generally of science. We don’t know what energy is, but we can describe it mathematically, measure it accurately, even market, regulate and tax it. In INFORMATION, Professor von Baeyer shows how information is becoming just as robust, and just as central to physics and biology, as energy is today. It is, he says, poised to replace matter as the primary stuff of the universe – stuff that flows out of a tangible object, like a piano or a book or an atom, and, after a tortuous sequence of metamorphoses involving the senses, lodges in the conscious brain. If we can understand the nature of information, we will have taken the first step along the road that leads from objective reality to our understanding of it. We will have found the philosopher’s stone – the key that unlocks the secrets of the universe.

Book Description

The nuclear age has morphed into the information age. Information is a cool, sexy word: using it makes you feel smart. It proves that you are plugged in and technologically sophisticated. Al Gore cruises along the information highway, while media gurus ventilate about the information explosion and hucksters tout information technology. Information is unquestionably in. But what is information? Is it a scientifically useful concept? The slow emergence of the notion of information during the past half-century contrasts sharply with the birth of the energy concept a century-and-a-half ago. Then, in the brief span of twenty years, energy was invented, defined and established as a key element of physics, and more generally of science. We don’t know what energy is, but we can describe it mathematically, measure it accurately, even market, regulate and tax it. In INFORMATION, Professor von Baeyer shows how information is becoming just as robust, and just as central to physics and biology, as energy is today. It is, he says, poised to replace matter as the primary stuff of the universe – stuff that flows out of a tangible object, like a piano or a book or an atom, and, after a tortuous sequence of metamorphoses involving the senses, lodges in the conscious brain. If we can understand the nature of information, we will have taken the first step along the road that leads from objective reality to our understanding of it. We will have found the philosopher’s stone – the key that unlocks the secrets of the universe.

Good but not great ***
This is a good book but not a great book. The author does a decent job of laying out all the basic concepts of modern thinking about information: classical concepts of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Claude Shannon's revolutionary reformulation of the problem, and modern concepts of qubits. The writing is brightened by some brilliant metaphors and sparkling descriptions. However, it fell short of my expectations in several areas. It made no mention of Maxwell's Demon, a paradox created by James Clark Maxwell around 1870. This thought experiment presented a means by which the Second Law of Thermodynamics could be subverted -- meaning that the Second Law isn't really a law! Now, everybody knew that this couldn't be, yet nobody could come up with a way to kill Maxwell's Demon until 1951, when he was finally done in with a quantum mechanical explanation based on the necessity of the Demon using information to perpetrate his crime against the Second Law. This was a crucial point in the development of our concepts of information -- it demonstrated that the Second Law is fundamentally a "conservation of information" law. Yet this book breathes nary a word of this profound development. Another striking omission was the Uncertainty Principle, the realization that triggered the quantum mechanics revolution and provides the fundamental basis for recognizing information as a finite quantity. This major milestone in the development of concepts of information merits only a passing mention in this book. Another gaping hole was the treatment of biology. There is a perfunctory discussion of genetic information content, but completely missing was any discussion of the biosphere capturing the negentropy (information) from the sun. Lastly, I felt that the explanation of the relationship of entropy to information -- through such concepts as orderliness -- was weak. The author addresses this concept, but instead relies on looser terms such as "form", so the point isn't driven home as clearly as it could have been. Then there are the digressions. The pages devoted to Democritus' atomic hypothesis are, I think, wasted; all readers know about atoms and the material doesn't affect any subsequent discussions. Similarly, the discussions of special relativity and general relativity, while intrinsically interesting, are not germane to the subject at hand and only serve to confuse the reader. And I think that the discussion of Bayes Theorem does nothing to advance the reader's understanding. I think the book is best in its overall presentation of the paradoxes that quantum mechanics created regarding information. The discussion of Schroedinger's Cat (a classic paradox about information and reality) is good, and the detailed treatment of quantum interference is definitely the strongest point of the book. It's also a good point to emphasize, because it feeds into subsequent discussions. Sadly, the discussion of the qubit doesn't illuminate the nature of this truly mysterious concept. I concede that this is a difficult concept to explain without the use of mathematics, but I think that a better job could have been done if the subject had been explained more slowly and thoroughly. In the author's defense, I note that tackling all this without a single equation is quite a feat. He does refer to logarithms, but otherwise he keeps the math out of the picture, most likely at the insistence of his editors. Explaining information concepts without mathematics is like playing a sport with one hand tied behind your back -- it's theoretically possible but impossible to do well. So, would I recommend this book? As always, it depends upon the audience. I would NOT recommend this book to anybody who is already familiar with the basics: Second Thermo, Uncertainty Principle, Shannon, and so forth. Its explanations of the modern concepts (black holes and information, qubits, information as a physical quantity) is inadequate to the needs of a prepared reader. I would, however, recommend this book to the beginner who knows nothing about information theory. If you've heard about this stuff and are curious about the foundations, this is one of the better books to start with. However, if you want to understand the concept of the qubit or how it might be used to build computers, this book won't help.

Good but not great ***

This is a good book but not a great book. The author does a decent job of laying out all the basic concepts of modern thinking about information: classical concepts of entropy, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Claude Shannon's revolutionary reformulation of the problem, and modern concepts of qubits. The writing is brightened by some brilliant metaphors and sparkling descriptions. However, it fell short of my expectations in several areas.

It made no mention of Maxwell's Demon, a paradox created by James Clark Maxwell around 1870. This thought experiment presented a means by which the Second Law of Thermodynamics could be subverted -- meaning that the Second Law isn't really a law! Now, everybody knew that this couldn't be, yet nobody could come up with a way to kill Maxwell's Demon until 1951, when he was finally done in with a quantum mechanical explanation based on the necessity of the Demon using information to perpetrate his crime against the Second Law. This was a crucial point in the development of our concepts of information -- it demonstrated that the Second Law is fundamentally a "conservation of information" law. Yet this book breathes nary a word of this profound development.

Another striking omission was the Uncertainty Principle, the realization that triggered the quantum mechanics revolution and provides the fundamental basis for recognizing information as a finite quantity. This major milestone in the development of concepts of information merits only a passing mention in this book.

Another gaping hole was the treatment of biology. There is a perfunctory discussion of genetic information content, but completely missing was any discussion of the biosphere capturing the negentropy (information) from the sun.

Lastly, I felt that the explanation of the relationship of entropy to information -- through such concepts as orderliness -- was weak. The author addresses this concept, but instead relies on looser terms such as "form", so the point isn't driven home as clearly as it could have been.

Then there are the digressions. The pages devoted to Democritus' atomic hypothesis are, I think, wasted; all readers know about atoms and the material doesn't affect any subsequent discussions. Similarly, the discussions of special relativity and general relativity, while intrinsically interesting, are not germane to the subject at hand and only serve to confuse the reader. And I think that the discussion of Bayes Theorem does nothing to advance the reader's understanding.

I think the book is best in its overall presentation of the paradoxes that quantum mechanics created regarding information. The discussion of Schroedinger's Cat (a classic paradox about information and reality) is good, and the detailed treatment of quantum interference is definitely the strongest point of the book. It's also a good point to emphasize, because it feeds into subsequent discussions.

Sadly, the discussion of the qubit doesn't illuminate the nature of this truly mysterious concept. I concede that this is a difficult concept to explain without the use of mathematics, but I think that a better job could have been done if the subject had been explained more slowly and thoroughly.

In the author's defense, I note that tackling all this without a single equation is quite a feat. He does refer to logarithms, but otherwise he keeps the math out of the picture, most likely at the insistence of his editors. Explaining information concepts without mathematics is like playing a sport with one hand tied behind your back -- it's theoretically possible but impossible to do well.

So, would I recommend this book? As always, it depends upon the audience. I would NOT recommend this book to anybody who is already familiar with the basics: Second Thermo, Uncertainty Principle, Shannon, and so forth. Its explanations of the modern concepts (black holes and information, qubits, information as a physical quantity) is inadequate to the needs of a prepared reader.

I would, however, recommend this book to the beginner who knows nothing about information theory. If you've heard about this stuff and are curious about the foundations, this is one of the better books to start with. However, if you want to understand the concept of the qubit or how it might be used to build computers, this book won't help.

Information Unveiled *****
This is one of the best books I have read on information theory. Being aspecialist on information theory and coding, I can confidently recommendthis book to anyone who is interested in a bit more that just thetheoretical aspects of information. The clarity and the relevance of theexamples given by the author definitely make the book very readable (evenfor people who are not fascinated by books). I believe this book is a mustread for people who wish to find out about the true power of informationand what it actually means despite its very abstract nature.

Information Unveiled *****

This is one of the best books I have read on information theory. Being aspecialist on information theory and coding, I can confidently recommendthis book to anyone who is interested in a bit more that just thetheoretical aspects of information. The clarity and the relevance of theexamples given by the author definitely make the book very readable (evenfor people who are not fascinated by books). I believe this book is a mustread for people who wish to find out about the true power of informationand what it actually means despite its very abstract nature.

Informative on information... ****
An interesting and well written book, It takes the reader chronologically through the history of the concept of information. The pace is quite quick and Hans Christian von Baeyer skillfully puts the necessary scientific insights and backgrounds into theories without making it a heavy tome. For each classical figure in scientific history who has given us a step change, we also get a brief overview of their character and how their efforts have formalised 'information' as we see it today. We also get the contrasts of simply measuring the bits (even q-bits) of information through to determining what we know from expressing things as huge unknowns, there is also a good section on quality of information and noise. Later in the book we get the 'economy' of information where we try to express the most in most efficient way. An example is the mention of Samual Morse as an inovator in the telegraphic age for the efficiency of his code (together with a background regarding his enthusiasm for expressing and informing...) Then having moved forward into our present information age of high speed processing and communications, the final chapters of the book move into the realms of quantum theory and how we may move forward again in our processing and manipulation of information in the next few decades. A good book based on a good scientific background, but expressed in a relaxed and informal style where you feel the personal input of each person in history who has moved us forward in our insight...

Informative on information... ****

An interesting and well written book, It takes the reader chronologically through the history of the concept of information.
The pace is quite quick and Hans Christian von Baeyer skillfully puts the necessary scientific insights and backgrounds into theories without making it a heavy tome. For each classical figure in scientific history who has given us a step change, we also get a brief overview of their character and how their efforts have formalised 'information' as we see it today.
We also get the contrasts of simply measuring the bits (even q-bits) of information through to determining what we know from expressing things as huge unknowns, there is also a good section on quality of information and noise.
Later in the book we get the 'economy' of information where we try to express the most in most efficient way.
An example is the mention of Samual Morse as an inovator in the telegraphic age for the efficiency of his code (together with a background regarding his enthusiasm for expressing and informing...) Then having moved forward into our present information age of high speed processing and communications, the final chapters of the book move into the realms of quantum theory and how we may move forward again in our processing and manipulation of information in the next few decades.
A good book based on a good scientific background, but expressed in a relaxed and informal style where you feel the personal input of each person in history who has moved us forward in our insight...