Working with information sources

The resources of our planet are not limitless. They are used by humanity as a material for creating social benefits and recreational activities. Sometimes they are thoughtlessly consumed in large quantities, which leads to depletion of reserves.

Non-renewable natural resources especially suffer. This problem affects most developed countries, so experts in this field have come up with many rational ways to solve the problem of exhaustion.

Resource classification

A simple classification will help us figure out which resources we should worry about losing in the first place. All resources of the planet are divided into two large groups: exhaustible and inexhaustible.

1. Inexhaustible resources are, first of all, the planet’s water reserves. This group also includes cosmic rays, wind energy, air, and tidal energy.
2. Exhaustible resources are divided into two main subgroups: renewable and non-renewable resources.

Renewable resources

This group includes plants and animals, forests, some minerals and soil. A feature of such resources is the ability to self-renew, which can last for a different period of time.

For example, animals and plants restore their population in a few years, but forests will take several hundred years, and the fertile layer of the earth - humus - will accumulate for a thousand years. By the way, due to such a long period of time, soil is classified as a conditionally renewable resource.

Although these sources of raw materials can be restored, sometimes there is a serious need for them, and then a shortage. For example, if forests are cut down for a period that is less than their restoration time, the forests will begin to gradually disappear. The same applies to species of animals and plants listed in the Red Book.

Problems of rational soil management

When you look at a world map, the land seems like an immense territory. However, only one third of it is capable of fertility. The rest is either mountain ranges, swamps, deserts or even permafrost.

Soil is a conditionally renewable resource, so it must be spent on agriculture taking into account the rapid depletion of the fertile layer of the earth.

The situation is worsened by natural factors such as soil erosion and drying out. In addition, the person himself negatively affects the process of humus restoration. Examples include many successful attempts to reclamate wetlands, where the quality of the soil is now significantly inferior to the necessary requirements.

There are other indirect anthropogenic factors. For example, excessive soil fertilization with chemicals, wastewater pollution (and, accordingly, the release of all dissolved substances into the soil).

Agree, the picture is depressing. This means that we should be more careful about soil as a resource that people need for the development of agriculture. Growing crops is one of the main sources of food, which is an important factor for improving the situation with the deterioration of soil quality and the reduction of their territories.

Plants and animals

The biosphere is a source of a large amount of materials that go towards the formation of social benefits. We are talking about flora and fauna.

Man uses these resources not only in the form of food, but also as sources for the production of tissue materials and medicines. Scientists also test their developments on animals or plants in the laboratory.

The anthropogenic factor influencing the formation of the biosphere is very large. This is felt by the disappearance of some species or an extremely small number of their representatives, by changes in the quality of biocenoses and, as a consequence, by the formation of negative flora and fauna. Pollution of soils and water bodies is the reason for the disappearance of animals and plants important to humans.

The loss of one link in the power chain leads to disruption of the entire chain. This is what is happening in nature now: animals leave their native territories in order to survive, and other species take their place, which negatively affect the entire ecosystem.

Of course, animals and plants do not belong to the group of non-renewable resources, and nevertheless, vigilant monitoring of changes in the biosphere is important.

Non-renewable resources

Particular attention should be paid to this group of minerals, since these materials have found great application in modern industry.

Non-renewable resources include various metal ores, oil, natural gas, oil shale, peat, limestone, etc. All of these are precursors to building materials and fuels, without which modern civilized man cannot do.

Exhaustible non-renewable resources require competent handling. The rate of extraction of minerals is incommensurate with the time of their formation, so a gradual decline in the corresponding sources is already felt.

Inexhaustible resources

The problem with non-renewable resources is the potential exhaustibility of their sources, which cannot renew themselves. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the amount of minerals consumed so that the mines and shafts are not depleted ahead of time.

This problem can be partially solved using potential energy sources. This includes air and wind energy, cosmic (solar) rays, and the heat of the Earth. Such resources are considered inexhaustible, because their consumption will not affect the environment in any way, and the sources themselves accumulate a large amount of energy.

This group of resources also includes the Earth’s water reserves. Despite the apparent possibility of reducing the volume of water, its reserves are large enough to be sufficient both for energy production and for use in production.

Water is a potential source of energy

The Earth's water reserves are used by humans everywhere. From consumption in the food industry to cooling devices in factories and factories, most areas of human life depend on water.

Depending on how water is used by the population, consumers and users are distinguished.

1. Consumers are agriculture and municipal services, industry (both food and technological sides). This group uses water as a resource that is consumed locally.
2. Users include fishermen, hydroelectric power plants, and water transport. We are not talking about the exhaustibility of water here, since it is not consumed directly, but only helps in achieving the set goals.

Of all reserves, fresh water makes up only 2%. Therefore, the use of clean fresh water is also monitored, because the relative volume is catastrophically small. In some cases, reserves of life-giving moisture can be compared to a non-renewable resource, and its shortage is especially felt in developing countries in Africa.

Natural resource potential (NRP)

ERP is largely an economic concept that shows the ability of a resource source to provide a certain amount of material without harm to the environment and itself in particular.

Natural resource potential is relevant for solving environmental problems, since a certain territory with its own sources of minerals, vegetation, animals, and water is usually considered. In general, all of the listed types of renewable and non-renewable natural resources are accepted as components of the PDP.

The term “recreational potential” is also relevant in the context of environmental problems. RP are all the natural resources of a given territory, which in theory can be used to organize recreational activities. At the same time, current socio-cultural, natural and economic problems are considered here.

Stocks of non-renewable resources

In theory, everyone imagines that someday the sources of minerals will become empty. At the same time, even experts cannot accurately calculate the available amount of non-renewable resources at the moment, since there are undiscovered points of metal ores and oil, and only the approximate amount of extracted materials is known from existing sources.

All Earth reserves are classified into undetected and identified. Each of these categories is divided into two more subgroups: reserves and other resources.

1. Reserves are those minerals that can be mined for profit and used as sources of energy or necessary materials. These resources can be extracted using modern technological devices.
2. Other resources represent either undiscovered or potential sources of minerals. Production from such sources may not be possible due to equipment deficiencies or high costs that outweigh profits.

The problem of exhaustibility of renewable and non-renewable resources is indirectly solved by the general rule: if 80% of reserve mineral resources have already been extracted, the source is considered exhausted. The main reason is the financial disadvantage of the remaining 20% ​​of materials.

Energy: pros and cons

What criteria are decisive when working with different sources of resources?

• General supplies of materials.
• Clean useful output.
• Social and state security.
• Price.
• Potential environmental impact.

The most developed energy sources at the moment are:

1. Oil. Relatively cheap source of fuel worldwide. Oil is easily transported through developed pipe systems and can also be processed in production without problems. Can be used raw.

The main environmental problem with the use of oil is the large volumes of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, which is a source of the development of the greenhouse effect with associated problems.

According to experts, existing oil reserves can be depleted in 40-80 years.

2. Coal. The most common type of mineral. It has a good output of heat and energy, but has a detrimental effect on the environment due to the side release of CO 2. Also, the extraction of coal itself affects the natural processes of nearby biogeocenoses.

3. Gas. Along with coal, it is considered an inexpensive natural source of thermal energy. Unfortunately, gas combustion also releases large amounts of CO 2 .

conclusions

Extraction of any type of resource requires careful control over the process. The depletion of critical sources of raw materials and energy is the path to global economic and political problems that will cause a deterioration in the lives of the population of any country.

The use of non-renewable resources has a negative impact on the environment. This issue plays an important role, since climate change and problems in biocenoses can lead to global disasters.

MODULE 2. Information. Information sources. Working with information sources

Theory. Information. Types, storage, search, use of information. Information sources. Rules for compiling a bibliographic list. Working with information sources.

Target: to form ideas about information, its types, sources, features of storage, retrieval and use.

Tasks:

1. Consider the concept and types of information

2. Understand sources and media of information

3. Find out the types, storage, retrieval, use of information

4. Form ideas about working with information sources

5. Learn the rules for compiling a bibliography

Concept and types of information

Information- a general scientific concept that includes the body of knowledge about nature, society, man and thinking.

The knowledge acquired by mankind is recorded in books, textbooks, teaching aids and other documents.

People deal with many types of information. Information is divided into socio-political, socio-economic, pedagogical, scientific and technical, etc.

The communication of people with each other at home and at school, at university, at work and on the street is the transfer of information. The same information can be transmitted and received in different ways. So, to find the way to a museum in an unfamiliar city, you can ask a passerby, get help from the information desk, try to figure it out yourself using a city map, or consult a guidebook. When we listen to a teacher's explanation, read books or newspapers, watch TV news, visit museums and exhibitions - at this time we receive information.

A teacher's story or a friend's story, a television program, a telegram, a letter, an oral message, etc. - all these are examples of information transfer. Receiving and converting information is a necessary condition for the life of any organism. Even the simplest single-celled organisms constantly perceive and use information, for example, about the temperature and chemical composition of the environment to select the most favorable living conditions. Living beings are capable of not only perceiving information from the environment using their senses, but also exchanging it with each other.

A person also perceives information through the senses, and languages ​​are used to exchange information between people. During the development of human society, many such languages ​​arose. First of all, these are native languages ​​(Russian, English, etc.) spoken by numerous peoples of the world.

Sources and media of information

Sources of information are various documents.

Under the documents it is necessary to understand not only traditional written sources (books, magazines, brochures, newspapers, etc.), but also other objects that contain information intended for storage and transmission to the user. These are handwritten materials, audiovisual media (sound recordings, cinema and video films, etc.), visual aids, and collection materials.

A document intended for the dissemination of the information contained in it, which has undergone editorial and publishing processing, received by printing or embossing, independently designed in printing, and having imprint information, is called publication . The publication can be not only a printed text, but also a combined one, i.e. include sound recordings (records, tapes or disks), images on other tangible media (floppy disks, computer disks, slides, films, etc.)

Currently, most documents are published on paper. This is very expensive, takes up a lot of space, and is associated with great difficulties in searching for data.

At the same time, there are also information carriers such as microfilms, microcards, microfiches, the capacity and recording density of which is much higher than on paper.

Types, storage, search, use of information

A person stores the information received in his head. The human brain is a huge repository of information. A notepad or notebook, your diary, school notebooks, a library, a museum, a cassette with recordings of your favorite tunes, videotapes - all these are examples of storing information.

Information can be processed: translating text from English into Russian and vice versa, calculating the sum of given terms, solving a problem, coloring pictures or contour maps - all these are examples of information processing. You all loved coloring in coloring books at one time or another. It turns out that at this time you were engaged in an important process - information processing, turning a black and white drawing into a color one.

Information can even be lost. Let's say Dima Ivanov forgot his diary at home and therefore wrote down his homework on a piece of paper. But, while playing at recess, he made an airplane out of it and launched it. Arriving home, Dima could not do his homework, he lost the information. Now he needs to either try to remember what he was asked, or call a classmate to get the necessary information, or go to school with unfinished homework.

The development of science and education has led to a rapid increase in the volume of information and human knowledge. If at the beginning of the last century the total amount of human knowledge doubled approximately every fifty years, then in subsequent years - every five years. The way out of this situation was the creation of computers, which greatly accelerated and automated the process of information processing.

The first electronic computer, ENIAC, was developed in the USA in 1946. In our country, the first computer was created in 1951 under the leadership of Academician V.A. Lebedeva.

Currently, computers are used to process not only numerical but also other types of information. Today, a computer is located on the desktop of a specialist in any profession. It allows you to contact any part of the world by special mail, connect to the collections of large libraries without leaving your home, use encyclopedias, study new sciences and acquire various skills with the help of training programs and simulators. He helps the fashion designer to develop patterns, the publisher to arrange text and illustrations, the artist to create new paintings, and the composer to create music. An expensive experiment can be completely calculated and simulated on a computer.

Receiving, storing, transmitting and processing information is information processes . The role of information processes in our lives is great and becomes more noticeable every year. Therefore, human society of our time is called an information society. People living in the information society must be able to use its main tool, and first of all the universal information machine - the computer.

Let us consider in more detail the basic information processes: search, collection (storage), transmission, processing and use of information.

Search for information.

You and I very often have to search for information: look for a translation of a foreign word in a dictionary, a phone number in a telephone directory, the departure time of a train in a railway schedule, the required formula in a mathematics textbook, a route on a metro map, a travel route in a library catalogue. information about the book you need. Many more examples can be given. All these are processes of searching for information on external media: books, diagrams, tables, card indexes.

Information search methods:

Direct observation;

Communication with specialists on an issue that interests you;

Reading relevant literature;

Watching videos, TV programs;

Listening to radio broadcasts, audio cassettes;

Work in libraries and archives;

Request to information systems, databases and computer data banks;

Other methods.

Collection and storage of information.

Gathering information is not an end in itself. In order for the information received to be used, and repeatedly, it is necessary to store it.

Information storage is a way of distributing information in space and time. The method of storing information depends on its medium (book - library, painting - museum, photograph - album). A computer is designed for compact storage of information with the ability to quickly access it.

An information system is a repository of information equipped with procedures for entering, searching, placing and issuing information. The presence of such procedures is the main feature of information systems, distinguishing them from simple accumulations of information materials. For example, a personal library, which only its owner can navigate, is not an information system. In public libraries, the order in which books are placed is always strictly defined. Thanks to him, the search and issuance of books, as well as the placement of new arrivals, are standard, formalized procedures.

People store information either in their own memory (sometimes they say “in their mind”) or on some external media. Most often - on paper.

The information that we remember is always available to us. For example, if you memorized the multiplication table, then you don’t need to look anywhere in order to answer the question: what is five for five? Every person remembers his home address, telephone number, as well as the addresses and telephone numbers of loved ones. If we need an address or telephone number that we don’t remember, we turn to a notebook or telephone directory.

Human memory can be called operational memory. Here the word "operative" is synonymous with the word "fast". A person quickly reproduces knowledge stored in memory. We can also call our memory internal memory. Then the information stored on external media (in notebooks, reference books, encyclopedias, magnetic recordings) can be called our external memory.

People often forget something. Information on external media is stored longer and more reliably. It is with the help of external media that people pass on their knowledge from generation to generation.

Transfer of information.

In the process of transmitting information, a source and a receiver of information necessarily participate: the first transmits information, the second receives it. Between them there is an information transmission channel - a communication channel.

Communication channel is a set of technical devices that ensure the transmission of a signal from a source to a recipient.

An encoding device is a device designed to convert the source's original message into a form convenient for transmission.

Decoding device - a device for converting a coded message into the original one.

Human activity is always associated with the transfer of information.

During the transmission process, information can be lost and distorted: sound distortion in the telephone, atmospheric interference in the radio, distortion or darkening of the image in television, transmission errors in the telegraph. This interference, or noise as experts call it, distorts information. Fortunately, there is a science that develops ways to protect information - cryptology.

Data processing.

Information processing is the transformation of information from one type to another, carried out according to strict formal rules.

Information processing according to the “black box” principle is a process in which the user only needs and needs input and output information, but the rules by which the transformation occurs are not of interest to him and are not taken into account.

A “black box” is a system in which only information at the input and output of this system is available to an external observer, and the structure and internal processes are unknown.

The process of processing information is not always associated with obtaining some new information. For example, when translating text from one language to another, information is processed, changing its form, but not its content.

This type of processing includes information coding. Coding is the transformation of the representation of information from one symbolic form to another, convenient for its storage, transmission or processing.

Another type of information processing is its sorting (sometimes called ordering). For example, you decided to write down the addresses and telephone numbers of all your classmates on separate cards. In what order should these cards be folded so that it is then convenient to look for the necessary information among them? You'll most likely put them in alphabetical order by last name. In computer science, organizing data according to some rule that links it into a single whole is called structuring.

Use of information.

Information is used in decision making.

The reliability, completeness, and objectivity of the information received will provide you with the opportunity to make the right decision.

Your ability to present information clearly and clearly will come in handy when communicating with others.

The ability to communicate, that is, exchange information, is becoming one of the main human skills in the modern world.

Computer literacy requires:

Knowledge of the purpose and user characteristics of the main computer devices;

Knowledge of basic types of software and types of user interfaces;

Ability to search, store, and process text, graphic, and numerical information using appropriate software.

The user's information culture includes:

Understanding the patterns of information processes;

Knowledge of the basics of computer literacy;

Technical computer skills;

Effective use of the computer as a tool;

The habit of accessing a computer in a timely manner when solving problems in any field, based on knowledge of computer technology;

Application of the obtained information in practical activities.

Working with information sources

Any research work is unthinkable without studying specialized literature. A qualified analysis of literary sources requires knowledge of certain rules for their search, appropriate methods of study and note-taking.

The literature search can continue in the process of familiarizing yourself with sources based on studying the lists of used literature, usually given at the end of the book. When selecting literature of interest, one must take into account the year of publication, the authority and fame in science of the author of the book, the publishing house, and the general focus of the work (determined at this stage by the title). The stage of selecting relevant literature should be accompanied by a bibliographic description of the source on special index cards or in a notebook. This is due to the fact that sometimes there is a need to repeatedly view certain sources, as well as the need to create a personal card index built on a certain thematic basis. All bibliographic descriptions must be strictly unified and comply with generally accepted rules.

Studying the literature is necessary for a clearer presentation of the research methodology and determination of general theoretical positions, as well as identifying the degree of scientific development of this problem. It is always important to establish to what extent and how this problem is covered in general scientific works and special works on this issue, reflecting the results of relevant research.

The main repositories of scientific and technical information are libraries. Therefore, in order to conduct a successful literature search, researchers need to correctly navigate the library collections.

There are libraries universal, scientific, technical, public and departmental. Universal libraries contain literature on all branches of knowledge. Industry libraries provide literature on the relevant specialty.

For research (project) activities, schoolchildren generally have enough books, magazines and newspapers from school and district libraries.

In the event that the necessary information is not available in the specified libraries, the necessary information should be ordered from the regional library through interlibrary delivery.

When visiting a library, the first thing you should do is contact the bibliographer. He will tell you in which catalog you should look for a book or other printed publication.

When you receive a book, you need to read it first with the abstract. annotation - this is a brief description of the content, purpose, form and other features of the printed publication. The abstract may also include information about the author and contain explanatory or recommendatory text.

A student, after reading the annotation, may discover that he only needs a few pages of the publication in question for his work. Then he can order photocopies of them and calmly work with them at home.

Almost every library has a reading room. It contains the most valuable books, reference books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.

Great help for targeted work in the library can be provided by appropriate catalogs , which are divided into three main types: alphabetical, systematic and subject. Each of them has a specific purpose, serves to respond only to relevant requests and is drawn up in accordance with GOST.

In the alphabetical catalog information about the literature available in the library is arranged in a single alphabetical order, indicating the names of the authors or titles of books (if the authors are not indicated in them). Alphabetical order is also maintained for the author's first and middle names. Literature published in a language using Latin script is usually located in these catalogs after all publications in Russian.

Along with alphabetic ones, widespread systematic catalogs . Descriptions of works in them are given by branches of science and technology. Departments and subdivisions of systematic catalogs are built in order from general to specific, which is fixed by special indices - a combination of letters or numbers. Departments of systematic catalogs often have at the beginning lists of their divisions, with links and notes that allow one to navigate through a large array of catalog cards.

A number of large scientific and technical libraries are creating) subject catalogs. They reflect more specific issues and group descriptions of literature under the names of subjects in alphabetical order. In addition to the main types of directories discussed above, we can also highlight directories periodic publications received by the library, or catalogs of magazine and newspaper articles. When working with literature, it should be taken into account that materials from journals and collections contain more recent data than books and monographs, since the latter take a long time to prepare and publish. At the same time, monographs and books present the material in more detail.

There is currently an electronic catalogue. Digital catalogue is a bibliographic database in machine-readable form, including elements of a bibliographic record to reflect the content of documents and elements indicating the storage address of the document (ciphers or library symbols). The presence of these elements in the database allows the Electronic Catalog to perform the functions of all types of catalogues:

· By purpose - reading, service, topographic;

· By the method of grouping - alphabetical, systematic and subject;

· By type of reflected documents - books, magazines and articles, etc.; electronic catalog automated library

· By reflected funds - Electronic catalog of one library or consolidated Electronic catalog.

Most of the necessary documents are concentrated in state archives. In our country there are central archives of federal significance, republican, regional and regional archives. A number of scientific and educational institutions and organizations also have their archives.

Documents in archives are put aside and stored in funds, which are divided into inventories. The inventory is based on a chronological principle or structural divisions of the fund-forming institution. The admission of researchers to archives and the procedure for working in them are regulated by special rules, common to which is the mandatory submission of a request from a scientific or educational institution to allow a specific person to work in a specific archive on a relevant topic and plan signed by the researcher.

When selecting documents in an archive, you should first of all become familiar with its accounting and reference apparatus: the archive's consolidated reference collection or a guide to the archive, which often has annotations for the most significant funds; catalogs and inventories of funds, which are called storage units. After establishing the name of the fund, the materials of which are necessary for the work, an application is drawn up in the form available in each archive.

The documents received under the application must be carefully reviewed and their value and need for further study identified. The contents of documents that are very important for work and have a small volume should be written out in full, simultaneously indicating the name of the fund, inventory number, case number, storage unit and sheet. In some cases, you can limit yourself to brief extracts of individual facts, also accompanying them with a mandatory link to the fund, inventory, file and sheet.

Work in the archive is an important link in many scientific and scientific-methodological research, therefore, familiarity with the organization, methodology and technology of this matter can be considered an integral part of the general scientific training of students.

Information is interpreted as a set of information that can be used by the user to make effective decisions. Information is a highly valuable resource of pragmatic interest: those who own it have the opportunity to analyze specific situations, qualitatively assess the conditions of their occurrence and probable development, develop alternative solutions, and monitor their implementation.

A distinction must be made between data and information. It is advisable to consider information as data that is given a targeted (targeted) character by filtering it in terms of situations, goals and problems, and specific people authorized to make decisions on these problems. A legitimate point of view is that data refers to any statistical information or facts, while information is intended to reduce the uncertainty of events of interest to the manager and provide an analysis of a specific situation.

The collection, processing, storage and dissemination of information using technical means is an objective necessity determined by the requirements of an adequate response of the organization to problem situations arising in a dynamically developing environment. Information technologies, being the basis of the entire management process, enable organizations to acquire competitive advantages, stimulate the improvement of organizational forms, and contribute to increased employee motivation. The more valuable the information, the stronger its influence on the subjects of management, on their choice and adoption of successful decisions and, in general, on the management processes occurring in the system. It is advisable to link the concept of the value of information with the concept of the ultimate goal towards which the efforts of the management subject are directed.

The manager should inform employees about the goals and intentions of the organization. Where people are not constantly informed about the state of affairs in the team and are trained not to ask unnecessary questions, gossip and rumors usually circulate, causing indifference, mutual distrust and alienation. However, the amount of information does not have to be large. It has been proven that an abundance of information and too close communication can negatively affect people's relationships.

A certain reasonable minimum of information is sufficient, but reliable and convincing information that sufficiently fully characterizes the situation, arouses healthy interest and does not allow any bias in assessments. Care should also be taken to ensure that the content of information is not deformed by false attitudes and stereotypes.

The latest MOOTs hinder communication in two ways: under their influence, the transmitter of information can without intent distort its content, and the recipient - the meaning.

The fundamental value of information is that without it it is impossible to find an acceptable solution to the problems facing an organization operating in a competitive market environment. Providing managers with advanced information systems at their disposal opens up enormous opportunities for them to obtain accurate data on the state of production, allows them to develop sound strategies for economic development and successfully compete. Therefore, every organization must have a carefully developed information model.

There are two main ways of distributing formal information in an organization: vertical (across hierarchical levels) and horizontal (between employees of the same level). Vertical communications are less effective. Research shows that no more than 20-25% of information emanating from management reaches the performers and is understood correctly by them. It's hard to believe that employees can do their jobs effectively without 80% of the information they need. Thus, the manager gives an incomplete description of the problem situation, which must be resolved taking into account the claims of its participants (direct and indirect, active and passive).

The flow of information coming to the manager must be formed depending on the nature of the organization and cannot be described in formulas common to all.

We can try to name only a few practice-justified requirements for organizing work with information.:

It must be systematic, regular, reliable, sufficient, but not excessive, representing “information noise”:

It should be pre-processed, preferably by mechanized means, and brought into a user-friendly form;

It must be conveyed not only to direct implementers, but also to all services whose interests are, one way or another, affected by relevant decisions. To create the prerequisites for the rational use of information, it is recommended that in his operational work the manager proceeds from the principle: minimum interference in the current affairs of his subordinates and maximum demands for the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to them.

This principle is justified, since the manager in the decision-making process increasingly relies on specialists and turns into an organizer of their work, as a result of which he is increasingly required to know not so much how to solve specific problems, but what procedures can be used to organize work specialists.

Information requirements

In order for information to serve its purpose, it must meet the requirements placed on it. They concern the organization of its arrays and flows, the technological process of its processing. Information requirements are multi-valued, and therefore it is advisable to classify them.

The basic requirements for information, compliance with which forms an indispensable condition for ensuring the business level of management of an organization, can be summarized as follows:

Timeliness (relevance and efficiency). Lack of timeliness of information, even if it has high quality characteristics, makes it useless and leads to unjustified costs:

Accuracy reliability. Accuracy characterizes the level of approximation of information to the original that it expresses. Accuracy is inextricably linked with reliability, a true (true) reflection of the state of the control object and its environment;

Completeness and competence. These requirements imply the provision of information at a level as close as possible to the optimum, in a volume necessary and sufficient for making reasoned decisions;

Complexity. This requirement requires that information combine its various interrelated and complementary types, arriving in a certain sequence specified by the structure of the decision-making process. It is, in fact, synonymous with the concept of completeness of information;

Conciseness and logic. They must be observed with maximum semantic load, especially if the information is provided in documents;

Utility. It is expressed in the ability to serve as a basis for solving problems facing the organization;

Reliability. This requirement does not exclude a certain measure of risk, which is practically recognized as inevitable (probable);

Addressability. The content of this requirement is the distribution and transfer of information to specific managers who use it in their activities in the process of fulfilling the powers entrusted to them. In other words, information must be ensured to comply with the competence, powers and responsibilities of management subjects;

Collection and transmission speed. Fulfillment of the requirement is achieved through automation and computerization;

Multiple uses. This requirement can be achieved on the basis of appropriate ordering of the system of information carriers. Each organization develops information models in its own way, taking into account the specifics of its activities in a market economy. So, some companies create unified computer networks covering, say, all the stores, warehouses and offices of the company. This creates the ability to manage information and commodity flows in real time. The computer provides information about the passage of the goods and its sale, after which this data is sent to the service department. Other companies solve information problems, seeking, in particular, to minimize the stages of information flow and thereby improve the quality of decisions made.

The type and structure of the necessary information depend on the organization’s ongoing or planned activities, the competitive environment, the planning horizon, and many other factors (both internal and external). However, the varying needs from organization to organization does not exclude the possibility that, for example, a model for collecting information about competitors can be drawn up. Information collection should be carried out systematically and on an ongoing basis. The task of information support for management activities ultimately comes down to having important data that allows one to predict the future of the organization.

Information sources

Each organization has permanent and temporarily used sources of information. The source of the information is not critical. It can come from within the organization or from outside. However, any management process begins with the fact that top management receives signals from the outside world indicating the need for change. Thus, reliable information becomes the main prerequisite for the correct formulation and solution of organizational development problems.

In all cases, the assessment of the state of management of an organization must be preceded by appropriate research. They can use both formal and informal sources of information, which together can give a true picture of the state of affairs in the organization. Before the development concept is formed, the manager, who is called upon to eliminate or prevent the occurrence of certain organizational difficulties, does not yet know whether he will need additional information to solve the problem.

The sources of information necessary for the functioning of an organization are extremely diverse. For ease of use, it is advisable to distinguish between external and internal, as well as formal and informal sources of information.

The following are used as internal sources of information: the organization’s charter; annual reports on production activities; annual financial, statistical and other reports sent to government agencies; economic reviews; projects for various purposes; accounting data; information about the territorial location of the organization, its specialization, market position, volume of activity, nature of development, owners; materials of meetings, etc. Data on the development of core and related industries, press publications regarding trends and probable prospects for their development, relevant materials appearing in periodicals and special publications will also be of undoubted interest. Observations of the activities of organizations and interviews with their managers and specialists are also important sources of information.

External information can enter systems from a wide variety of sources. This may be statistical data, data from news agencies, investment funds, the securities market, insurance companies, banking structures, currency exchanges, etc. Currently, the availability of many sources can create a false impression that there are no difficulties with information. When working on any problem situation, you can see that this is far from the case. Information from various sources is sometimes contradictory, most of it turns out to be “information noise.” At the same time, the truly necessary data is often lacking. Therefore, it is very important not only to structure information sources, but also to include them in the organization’s information model.

The most important should be considered information about the needs for resources and the possibilities of meeting them, since certain goals of any division of the organization are, in essence, synonymous with establishing a need that should be satisfied through the resources available and accumulated in a given system. The question that every manager would like to have an answer to is: how should the available resources be used to achieve the goals set for them?

Thus, the need for information can be satisfied in various ways, taking into account the fact that the problems identified in the analysis of environmental factors are provided with information to an unequal extent. As a result, some of them can be assessed specifically and in detail and informed decisions can be made, while the significance of others can be judged only approximately on the basis of weak signals, creating an inaccurate picture of future events.

The information contained in the forecasts should be supplemented with background information, inevitable in a situation of greater or lesser uncertainty and insufficiency, with assumptions of varying degrees of reliability (about hypothetical inflation rates, significant changes in the investment climate or competitive environment, etc.). As a result, it becomes possible to complete the development of a model of the future, which, in turn, is used to evaluate and select the organization.

A review of possible sources of competitive information suggests that such information can be collected without resorting to illegal or unethical methods. The need to use such methods is eliminated thanks to the abundance of open and semi-open sources, one of which can be trusted relationships with management personnel of the organizations of interest.

These sources are so numerous that it is impossible to compile an exhaustive list of them.

Let's name the most common ones:

Government sources:

Materials of professional associations;

Periodical business publications;

Books and press;

Materials of meetings, conferences;

Chambers of Commerce Documents;

Minutes of shareholders' meetings;

Materials from banks, investment funds;

Documentation of sales organizations and supply departments;

Data from suppliers and buyers, etc.

For specific purposes, it is important to have a detailed concept and model for collecting information.

In particular, the necessary information about the market may contain the following information::

Market policies and plans;

Terms of contracts, discount prices;

Product Specifications;

Volume and forecast for this product;

Market share and trends in its changes;

Consumer relations and reputation;

Number and location of sales agents;

Product distribution channels and sales methods;

Methods for obtaining information may be the most unexpected. For example, one of the employees responsible for data collection began his activities by sending out a “wanted list” containing questions about the activities of competitors on certain key company programs to the departments of his organization, with a request to update this list weekly. Sales agents and other employees who received the list were required to provide the intelligence department with all kinds of information about the activities of competitors. In such a simple way, you can gather a lot of information about your competitors' technology and marketing strategies.

The collected information is processed and analyzed, after which the resulting confidential data is distributed among managers and interested departments of the organization, which use it both to work on strategy and in operational activities.

It should be noted, however, that accumulated data can be recognized as information no earlier than they have been studied, processed and evaluated by an expert. In certain cases, information can be put into circulation without preliminary analysis by an expert, but under normal conditions this is unacceptable.

Data analysis and interpretation should be entrusted to professionals in the relevant area of ​​functional activity (personnel, finance, marketing, research, law, etc.). The specifics of the subject of analysis may require the creation of an expert group that brings together professionals from different but related fields of activity. They must be qualified enough to recognize the likely strategy of a competitor regarding, for example, diversification of production, development of a new market, etc.

In this case, various techniques can be used. In particular, a competitor's strategy can be determined through a game in which its possible behavior is modeled. In addition, it is possible to determine a competitor’s intentions, say, regarding achieving technical superiority, by studying the biographies of its key employees, specialists in the field of relevant technologies and technical preparation of production.

Information Systems

To manage information resources, organizations create information systems designed to collect primary data, convert them into information and distribute them. In its structure, an information system is a complex that includes individuals, procedures and resources, the latter being composed of digital, graphic and video information, and texts. It is customary to also include relationships between system elements in information resources, which expands the organization’s ability to obtain useful information.

Information systems are based on information technologies, the essence of which is the collection, processing and distribution (through computers and other electronic means) of information necessary for the organization. It is transmitted between computers using cable, satellite or telephone lines. In this case, computers are combined into networks (local or global), used to transmit e-mail or to send requests to data banks created at various levels of management.

Information systems exist in different forms. The simplest form is the human sensory organs, with the help of which signals are received from the external environment. After transformation in our consciousness, they are used as a tool (way) to react and influence the corresponding object. Paper-based information systems are very common, from instructions to notebooks. And finally, a very promising form of information systems are computerized systems, which include electronic means of data and presentation of information. Computerized information systems are capable of performing more different functions in comparison with other systems, and much faster and with better quality.

It is recommended to combine the functions of information systems into five types (operational, monitoring, decision support, knowledge systems and communication). The operating system handles routine operations: preparing payroll; monitoring system - processing data and providing users with information about product quality, financial or other characteristics of production activities. The decision support system provides managers with information regarding the modeling and development of alternative solutions with the subsequent selection of the most appropriate one. The knowledge system involves the use by experts of the logic of the process of working on solutions when analyzing its elements (components). A communication system helps, with the help of technical means (from e-mail to the World Wide Web), to overcome geographical and time barriers, and facilitates the process of information exchange both within the organization and far beyond its borders.

The latest information technologies do not always pay off, that is, they do not always improve quality and speed up decision-making, and the technologies themselves are not to blame here. Customers often have a poor understanding of the potential capabilities of modern information technologies (this was the case in the early stages of the introduction of computers, but sometimes still happens today). As a result, routine tasks are solved using complex technology, for which long-known simple technologies are quite sufficient. The lack of professionals in the field of the latest information technologies also has a negative impact, as a result of which highly effective and expensive technical means are at the disposal of managers who do not have proper training.

Meanwhile, the scale of computerized information systems is continuously expanding. Nowadays there are individual, local, corporate systems (uniform for many organizations). Organizations should think more carefully about the selection of required information, data protection and the system as a whole. You should approach requests in the information system responsibly from the perspective of the real needs of the organization, and competently purchase software (application program packages).

One of the modern information systems is the global computer network Internet. The Internet computer network community occupies a huge information space, which is becoming increasingly accessible to a wide range of users. The Internet covers most countries of the world, connects about 100 million computers, approximately 60 thousand networks, and at the same time continues to develop very quickly.

The Internet is the world's main source of information and an operational global means of communication.

There are two trends in filling the network with information content on the Internet. The first trend is related to the fact that the network satisfies a utilitarian, commercial approach. These are popular servers for everyone, as well as various electronic stores and advertising. In this case, supply creates demand.

The second trend is related to the improvement of this system for professional users, education and science, and the presentation of the Internet as a scientific and educational information space.

Quality of information

It is not easy for a manager, who for many years has resorted to the help of a limited number of familiar and trusted sources of information, and is now forced to act in market conditions, at some point to realize that he still has to go through the thorny path “from complex knowledge to true ignorance.”

To begin with, managers often have to deal with “misinformation,” when an individual, organization, or government knowingly or unknowingly issues incorrect data, or when the recipient of the data misinterprets its source and relationships. True knowledge arises when information relationships that were previously unnoticed begin to appear. In a situation of information overload, the ability to extract knowledge from a stream of unrelated information becomes one of the conditions for survival.

The reasons for misrepresentation are numerous. Among them, we name the insufficient level of qualifications of the person providing the information, considerations of prestige (unsatisfied ambition), emotional stress (fear of punishment, anger, envy, etc.), increased attention to a certain range of phenomena, prejudice against the person about whom the information is given, etc. Understanding These reasons help the manager to prevent distortions and critically perceive the information he uses.

With an abundance of information, the search for useful information grows into a problem that requires significant labor and time; the use of information retrieval systems, in particular legal ones, becomes increasingly necessary. In conditions where the avalanche of regulatory documents regulating the activities of economic entities does not dry up, any decision must be prepared on the basis of a detailed analysis of the legislation. However, legislation is constantly changing, and most legal issues are regulated by secondary legislation.

In this situation, a detailed and complete solution to the problem becomes possible only with the use of information systems - databases on industry and local legislation or complexes combining them.

Currently, there are many such systems offering their software products. It is important to choose an information retrieval system that best suits the needs of the organization concerned.

Work stably on any computer, in the user’s native language and in a network accessible to him, on any communication lines, in his familiar operating environment;

Provide the ability to work in accordance with the user’s qualifications, without requiring special knowledge;

Help formulate questions in the area of ​​interest to the user;

Be able to suggest a complete solution within 23 seconds in a form accessible for quick analysis;

Guarantee a high level of reliability in the process of work, in particular, contain all regulations in force in the relevant area, as well as provide the opportunity to create your own information base in familiar technology.

Currently, there are many such systems in operation in the country that are capable of answering queries in quick search modes of varying complexity (chronological, by thematic sections, by two-level classifier, by document details with the ability to search in texts for specified words, their truncations or combinations) ;

For example, databases of legal information systems contain thousands of regulatory documents on the topics “legislation in Russia”, “economic legislation”, “banking legislation”, “legislation on land use, subsoil use and nature conservation”, regulatory acts of Moscow, St. Petersburg, legislation on customs control, forms of legal documents, etc.

Such systems are attractive not just because of large amounts of information, but also because the relevant legal documents and legal knowledge become easily accessible and allow functionaries developing risk decision projects to feel more confident, and the manager to choose a solution with a relatively lower probability of damage.

In this context, a manager needs to understand the principles of building integrated data processing systems.

The most important of them are:

Dividing the information process into creative and technical operations that determine the qualification requirements for management staff and the organization of their work;

Organization of a unified flow of information between the subject and the control object through the appropriate data processing service; I

Determining a schedule for collecting data and processing it to compile documents necessary for the divisions of the governing body to make decisions of the appropriate types.

As part of an integrated data processing system, in order to turn the received information into useful information, it is recommended to pass it through filters - physical, semantic and pragmatic. The physical filter eliminates distortions caused by imperfect communication channels and the receiver, and the limited bandwidth of the latter. The semantic filter is designed to filter out all the data that is already in the thesaurus and data that does not intersect with it, because in both cases the manager does not receive any information. Finally, a pragmatic filter comes into play, the function of which is to select from the available information the information necessary to solve a particular task (problem situation).

Thus, an integrated data processing system becomes a powerful factor in increasing the efficiency of using information, as well as all management work. Such systems form the main prerequisite for subsequent mechanization and automation of the processes of development and decision-making in problem situations.

In recent years, commercial firms have appeared that have information technologies for production, scientific, banking and other economic structures in Russia. Purposeful information technology has become a prestigious commodity in the emerging market economy. It involves the use of government materials on labor issues, economics, census results, which contain a huge amount of data on population structure, price increases, income distribution, inflation, wages, etc. external information. If it is not available, the organization can obtain it on its own, through targeted research.

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Information is information about something

Concept and types of information, transmission and processing, retrieval and storage of information

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Information is, definition

Information is any information received and transmitted, stored by various sources. Information is the entire collection of information about the world around us, about all kinds of processes occurring in it that can be perceived by living organisms, electronic machines and other information systems.

- This significant information about something, when the form of its presentation is also information, that is, it has a formatting function in accordance with its own nature.

Information is everything that can be supplemented with our knowledge and assumptions.

Information is information about something, regardless of the form of its presentation.

Information is a mental product of any psychophysical organism produced by it using any means called a medium of information.

Information is information perceived by humans and (or) specialists. devices as a reflection of the facts of the material or spiritual world in the process of communication.

Information is data organized in such a way that it makes sense to the person handling it.

Information is the meaning a person attaches to data based on the known conventions used to represent it.

Information is information, explanation, presentation.

Information is any data or information that interests anyone.

Information is information about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and state, which are perceived by information systems (living organisms, control machines, etc.) in the process of life and work.

The same information message (newspaper article, advertisement, letter, telegram, certificate, story, drawing, radio broadcast, etc.) may contain different amounts of information for different people - depending on their prior knowledge, on the level of understanding of this message and interest in it.

In cases where they talk about automated work with information using any technical devices, they are not interested in the content of the message, but in how many characters this message contains.

In relation to computer data processing, information is understood as a certain sequence of symbolic designations (letters, numbers, encoded graphic images and sounds, etc.), carrying a semantic load and presented in a form understandable to the computer. Each new character in such a sequence of characters increases the information volume of the message.

Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge, this concept is described by its specific set of characteristics. For example, the concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, and it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts (just as in geometry, for example, it is impossible to express the content of the basic concepts “point”, “line”, “plane” through simpler concepts).

The content of basic, basic concepts in any science should be explained with examples or identified by comparing them with the content of other concepts. In the case of the concept “information”, the problem of its definition is even more complex, since it is a general scientific concept. This concept is used in various sciences (computer science, cybernetics, biology, physics, etc.), and in each science the concept of “information” is associated with different systems of concepts.

Information concept

In modern science, two types of information are considered:

Objective (primary) information is the property of material objects and phenomena (processes) to generate a variety of states, which through interactions (fundamental interactions) are transmitted to other objects and imprinted in their structure.

Subjective (semantic, semantic, secondary) information is the semantic content of objective information about objects and processes of the material world, formed by the human consciousness with the help of semantic images (words, images and sensations) and recorded on some material medium.

In the everyday sense, information is information about the surrounding world and the processes occurring in it, perceived by a person or a special device.

Currently, there is no single definition of information as a scientific term. From the point of view of various fields of knowledge, this concept is described by its specific set of characteristics. According to K. Shannon’s concept, information is uncertainty removed, i.e. information that should remove, to one degree or another, the uncertainty existing in the consumer before receiving it, and expand his understanding of the object with useful information.

From Gregory Beton's point of view, the elementary unit of information is a "non-indifferent difference" or effective difference for some larger perceiving system. He calls those differences that are not perceived “potential”, and those that are perceived “effective”. “Information consists of differences that are not indifferent” (c) “Any perception of information is necessarily the receipt of information about the difference.” From the point of view of computer science, information has a number of fundamental properties: novelty, relevance, reliability, objectivity, completeness, value, etc. The science of logic deals primarily with the analysis of information. The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of information was considered by ancient philosophers.

Before the start of the Industrial Revolution, determining the essence of information remained the prerogative of mainly philosophers. Next, the new science of cybernetics began to consider issues of information theory.

Sometimes, in order to comprehend the essence of a concept, it is useful to analyze the meaning of the word by which this concept is denoted. Clarifying the inner form of a word and studying the history of its use can shed unexpected light on its meaning, obscured by the usual "technological" use of the word and modern connotations.

The word information entered the Russian language in the Petrine era. It was first recorded in the “Spiritual Regulations” of 1721 in the meaning of “idea, concept of something.” (In European languages ​​it was established earlier - around the 14th century.)

Based on this etymology, information can be considered any significant change in shape or, in other words, any materially recorded traces formed by the interaction of objects or forces and amenable to understanding. Information, therefore, is a converted form of energy. The carrier of information is a sign, and the method of its existence is interpretation: identifying the meaning of a sign or a sequence of signs.

The meaning can be an event reconstructed from a sign that caused its occurrence (in the case of “natural” and involuntary signs, such as traces, evidence, etc.), or a message (in the case of conventional signs inherent in the sphere of language). It is the second type of signs that makes up the body of human culture, which, according to one definition, is “a set of non-hereditarily transmitted information.”

Messages may contain information about facts or interpretation of facts (from the Latin interpretatio, interpretation, translation).

A living being receives information through the senses, as well as through reflection or intuition. The exchange of information between subjects is communication or communication (from the Latin communicatio, message, transfer, derived in turn from the Latin communico, to make common, to communicate, to talk, to connect).

From a practical point of view, information is always presented in the form of a message. The information message is associated with the source of the message, the recipient of the message and the communication channel.

Returning to the Latin etymology of the word information, let's try to answer the question of what exactly is given form here.

It is obvious that, firstly, to a certain meaning, which, being initially formless and unexpressed, exists only potentially and must be “built” in order to become perceived and transmitted.

Secondly, to the human mind, which is trained to think structurally and clearly. Thirdly, to a society that, precisely because its members share these meanings and use them together, gains unity and functionality.

Information as expressed intelligent meaning is knowledge that can be stored, transmitted and be the basis for the generation of other knowledge. The forms of knowledge conservation (historical memory) are diverse: from myths, chronicles and pyramids to libraries, museums and computer databases.

Information is information about the world around us, about the processes occurring in it, which are perceived by living organisms, control machines and other information systems.

The word "information" is Latin. Over its long life, its meaning has undergone evolution, either expanding or extremely narrowing its boundaries. At first, the word “information” meant: “representation”, “concept”, then “information”, “transmission of messages”.

In recent years, scientists have decided that the usual (universally accepted) meaning of the word “information” is too elastic and vague, and have given it the following meaning: “a measure of certainty in a message.”

Information theory was brought to life by the needs of practice. Its origin is associated with the work of Claude Shannon “Mathematical theory of communication”, published in 1946. The fundamentals of information theory are based on results obtained by many scientists. By the second half of the 20th century, the globe was buzzing with transmitted information running along telephone and telegraph cables and radio channels. Later, electronic computers appeared - information processors. And for that time, the main task of information theory was, first of all, to increase the efficiency of communication systems. The difficulty in designing and operating means, systems and communication channels is that it is not enough for the designer and engineer to solve the problem from a physical and energy perspective. From these points of view, the system can be the most advanced and economical. But when creating transmission systems, it is important to pay attention to how much information will pass through this transmission system. After all, information can be measured quantitatively, counted. And in such calculations they act in the most usual way: they abstract from the meaning of the message, just as they abandon concreteness in arithmetic operations that are familiar to all of us (as they move from adding two apples and three apples to adding numbers in general: 2 + 3).

The scientists said they "completely ignored human evaluation of information." To a sequential series of 100 letters, for example, they assign a certain meaning of information, without paying attention to whether this information makes sense and whether, in turn, it makes sense in practical application. The quantitative approach is the most developed branch of information theory. By this definition, a collection of 100 letters—a 100-letter phrase from a newspaper, a Shakespeare play, or Einstein's theorem—has exactly the same amount of information.

This definition of information quantity is extremely useful and practical. It exactly corresponds to the task of the communications engineer, who must convey all the information contained in the submitted telegram, regardless of the value of this information for the addressee. The communication channel is soulless. One thing is important for the transmission system: to transmit the required amount of information in a certain time. How to calculate the amount of information in a particular message?

The assessment of the amount of information is based on the laws of probability theory, or more precisely, it is determined through the probabilities of events. This is understandable. A message has value and carries information only when we learn from it about the outcome of an event that is random in nature, when it is to some extent unexpected. After all, the message about what is already known does not contain any information. Those. If, for example, someone calls you on the phone and says: “It is light during the day and dark at night,” then such a message will surprise you only with the absurdity of stating something obvious and known to everyone, and not with the news it contains. Another thing, for example, is the result of a race. Who will come first? The outcome here is difficult to predict. The more the event of interest to us has random outcomes, the more valuable the message about its result, the more information. A message about an event that has only two equally possible outcomes contains a single unit of information called a bit. The choice of information unit is not accidental. It is associated with the most common binary way of encoding it during transmission and processing. Let us try, at least in the most simplified form, to imagine the general principle of quantitative assessment of information, which is the cornerstone of all information theory.

We already know that the amount of information depends on the probabilities of certain outcomes of an event. If an event, as scientists say, has two equally likely outcomes, this means that the probability of each outcome is 1/2. This is the probability of getting heads or tails when tossing a coin. If an event has three equally probable outcomes, then the probability of each is 1/3. Note that the sum of the probabilities of all outcomes is always equal to one: after all, one of all possible outcomes will definitely occur. An event, as you yourself understand, can have unequally probable outcomes. So, in a football match between a strong and weak team, the probability of the strong team winning is high - for example, 4/5. The probability of a draw is much lower, for example 3/20. The probability of defeat is very small.

It turns out that the amount of information is a measure of reducing the uncertainty of a certain situation. Various amounts of information are transmitted over communication channels, and the amount of information passing through the channel cannot be greater than its capacity. And it is determined by how much information passes here per unit of time. One of the heroes of Jules Verne's novel The Mysterious Island, journalist Gideon Spillett, transmitted a chapter from the Bible by telephone so that his competitors could not use the telephone connection. In this case, the channel was fully loaded, and the amount of information was equal to zero, because information known to him was transmitted to the subscriber. This means that the channel was running idle, passing a strictly defined number of pulses without loading them with anything. Meanwhile, the more information each of a certain number of pulses carries, the more fully the channel capacity is used. Therefore, you need to wisely encode information, find an economical, spare language to convey messages.

Information is “sifted” in the most thorough manner. In the telegraph, frequently occurring letters, combinations of letters, even entire phrases are represented by a shorter set of zeros and ones, and those that occur less frequently are represented by a longer set. In the case when the length of the code word is reduced for frequently occurring symbols and increased for rarely occurring ones, they speak of effective encoding of information. But in practice, it often happens that the code that has arisen as a result of the most careful “sifting”, the code is convenient and economical, can distort the message due to interference, which, unfortunately, always happens in communication channels: sound distortion in the telephone, atmospheric interference in radio, distortion or darkening of the image in television, transmission errors in telegraph. This interference, or as experts call it, noise, attacks the information. And this results in the most incredible and, naturally, unpleasant surprises.

Therefore, to increase reliability in the transmission and processing of information, it is necessary to introduce extra characters - a kind of protection against distortion. They - these extra symbols - do not carry the actual content of the message, they are redundant. From the point of view of information theory, everything that makes a language colorful, flexible, rich in shades, multifaceted, multi-valued is redundancy. How redundant from such a standpoint is Tatyana’s letter to Onegin! How much information excess there is in it for a brief and understandable message “I love you”! And how informationally accurate the hand-drawn signs are, understandable to everyone who enters the subway today, where instead of words and phrases of announcements there are laconic symbolic signs indicating: “Entrance”, “Exit”.

In this regard, it is useful to recall the anecdote once told by the famous American scientist Benjamin Franklin about a hat maker who invited his friends to discuss a sign project. It was supposed to draw a hat on the sign and write: “John Thompson, a hat maker, makes and sells hats for cash.” . One of the friends noted that the words “for cash” are unnecessary - such a reminder would be offensive to the buyer. Another also found the word “sells” superfluous, since it goes without saying that the hatmaker sells hats and does not give them away for free. The third thought that the words “hattermaker” and “makes hats” were an unnecessary tautology, and the latter words were thrown out. The fourth suggested that the word “hatmaker” should also be thrown out - the painted hat clearly says who John Thompson is. Finally, the fifth insisted that it made absolutely no difference to the buyer whether the hatmaker was called John Thompson or something else, and suggested that this indication be dispensed with. Thus, in the end, nothing remained on the sign except the hat. Of course, if people used only this kind of codes, without redundancy in messages, then all “information forms” - books, reports, articles - would be extremely brief. But they would lose in clarity and beauty.

Information can be divided into types according to different criteria: in truth: true and false;

by way of perception:

Visual - perceived by the organs of vision;

Auditory - perceived by the organs of hearing;

Tactile - perceived by tactile receptors;

Olfactory - perceived by olfactory receptors;

Gustatory - perceived by taste buds.

according to presentation form:

Text - transmitted in the form of symbols intended to denote lexemes of the language;

Numerical - in the form of numbers and signs indicating mathematical operations;

Graphic - in the form of images, objects, graphs;

Sound - oral or recorded transmission of language lexemes by auditory means.

by purpose:

Mass - contains trivial information and operates with a set of concepts understandable to most of society;

Special - contains a specific set of concepts; when used, information is transmitted that may not be understandable to the bulk of society, but is necessary and understandable within the narrow social group where this information is used;

Secret - transmitted to a narrow circle of people and through closed (protected) channels;

Personal (private) - a set of information about a person that determines the social status and types of social interactions within the population.

by value:

Relevant - information that is valuable at a given moment in time;

Reliable - information obtained without distortion;

Understandable - information expressed in a language understandable to those to whom it is intended;

Complete - information sufficient to make the right decision or understanding;

Useful - the usefulness of information is determined by the subject who received the information depending on the scope of possibilities for its use.

The value of information in various fields of knowledge

In information theory, many systems, methods, approaches, and ideas are being developed nowadays. However, scientists believe that new trends in information theory will be added to modern trends and new ideas will appear. As proof of the correctness of their assumptions, they cite the “living”, developing nature of science, pointing out that information theory is surprisingly quickly and firmly being introduced into the most diverse areas of human knowledge. Information theory has penetrated into physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, pedagogy, economics, logic, technical sciences, and aesthetics. According to the experts themselves, the doctrine of information, which arose due to the needs of the theory of communications and cybernetics, has crossed their boundaries. And now, perhaps, we have the right to talk about information as a scientific concept that puts into the hands of researchers a theoretical and information method with which one can penetrate into many sciences about living and inanimate nature, about society, which will not only allow one to look at all problems from a new perspective sides, but also to see what has not yet been seen. That is why the term “information” has become widespread in our time, becoming part of such concepts as information system, information culture, even information ethics.

Many scientific disciplines use information theory to highlight new directions in old sciences. This is how, for example, information geography, information economics, and information law arose. But the term “information” has acquired extremely great importance in connection with the development of the latest computer technology, the automation of mental work, the development of new means of communication and information processing, and especially with the emergence of computer science. One of the most important tasks of information theory is the study of the nature and properties of information, the creation of methods for processing it, in particular the transformation of a wide variety of modern information into computer programs, with the help of which the automation of mental work occurs - a kind of strengthening of intelligence, and therefore the development of the intellectual resources of society.

The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, but it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts. The concept of “information” is used in various sciences, and in each science the concept of “information” is associated with different systems of concepts. Information in biology: Biology studies living nature and the concept of “information” is associated with the appropriate behavior of living organisms. In living organisms, information is transmitted and stored using objects of different physical nature (DNA state), which are considered as signs of biological alphabets. Genetic information is inherited and stored in all cells of living organisms. Philosophical approach: Information is interaction, reflection, cognition. Cybernetic approach: Information is the characteristics of a control signal transmitted over a communication line.

The role of information in philosophy

The traditionalism of the subjective constantly dominated in the early definitions of information as a category, concept, property of the material world. Information exists outside of our consciousness, and can be reflected in our perception only as a result of interaction: reflection, reading, receiving in the form of a signal, stimulus. Information is not material, like all properties of matter. Information stands in the following order: matter, space, time, systematicity, function, etc., which are the fundamental concepts of a formalized reflection of objective reality in its distribution and variability, diversity and manifestations. Information is a property of matter and reflects its properties (state or ability to interact) and quantity (measure) through interaction.

From a material point of view, information is the order of objects in the material world. For example, the order of letters on a sheet of paper according to certain rules is written information. The order of multi-colored dots on a sheet of paper according to certain rules is graphic information. The order of musical notes is musical information. The order of genes in DNA is hereditary information. The order of bits in a computer is computer information, etc. and so on. To carry out information exchange, the presence of necessary and sufficient conditions is required.

The necessary conditions:

The presence of at least two different objects of the material or intangible world;

The presence of a common property among objects that allows them to be identified as a carrier of information;

The presence of a specific property in objects that allows them to distinguish objects from each other;

The presence of a space property that allows you to determine the order of objects. For example, the layout of written information on paper is a specific property of paper that allows letters to be arranged from left to right and from top to bottom.

There is only one sufficient condition: the presence of a subject capable of recognizing information. This is man and human society, societies of animals, robots, etc. An information message is constructed by selecting copies of objects from a basis and arranging these objects in space in a certain order. The length of the information message is defined as the number of copies of the basis objects and is always expressed as an integer. It is necessary to distinguish between the length of an information message, which is always measured in an integer, and the amount of knowledge contained in an information message, which is measured in an unknown unit of measurement. From a mathematical point of view, information is a sequence of integers that are written into a vector. Numbers are the object number in the information basis. The vector is called an information invariant, since it does not depend on the physical nature of the basis objects. The same information message can be expressed in letters, words, sentences, files, pictures, notes, songs, video clips, any combination of all of the above.

The role of information in physics

Information is information about the surrounding world (object, process, phenomenon, event), which is the object of transformation (including storage, transmission, etc.) and is used to develop behavior, for decision-making, for management or for learning.

The characteristic features of the information are as follows:

This is the most important resource of modern production: it reduces the need for land, labor, capital, and reduces the consumption of raw materials and energy. So, for example, if you have the ability to archive your files (i.e., having such information), you don’t have to spend money on buying new floppy disks;

Information brings new productions to life. For example, the invention of the laser beam was the reason for the emergence and development of the production of laser (optical) discs;

Information is a commodity, and the seller of information does not lose it after the sale. So, if a student tells his friend information about the class schedule during the semester, he will not lose this data for himself;

Information adds value to other resources, in particular labor. Indeed, a worker with a higher education is valued more than one with a secondary education.

As follows from the definition, three concepts are always associated with information:

The source of information is that element of the surrounding world (object, process, phenomenon, event), information about which is the object of transformation. Thus, the source of information that the reader of this textbook currently receives is computer science as a sphere of human activity;

An information consumer is that element of the surrounding world that uses information (to develop behavior, to make decisions, to manage or to learn). The consumer of this information is the reader himself;

A signal is a material medium that records information to transfer it from a source to a consumer. In this case, the signal is electronic in nature. If a student takes this manual from the library, then the same information will be on paper. Having been read and remembered by the student, the information will acquire another medium - biological, when it is “recorded” in the student’s memory.

The signal is the most important element in this circuit. The forms of its presentation, as well as the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information it contains, which are important for the consumer of information, are discussed further in this section of the textbook. The main characteristics of a computer as the main tool that maps the source of information into a signal (link 1 in the figure) and “brings” the signal to the consumer of information (link 2 in the figure) are given in the Computer section. The structure of procedures that implement connections 1 and 2 and make up the information process is the subject of consideration in the Information Process part.

Objects of the material world are in a state of continuous change, which is characterized by the exchange of energy between the object and the environment. A change in the state of one object always leads to a change in the state of some other environmental object. This phenomenon, regardless of how, what states and what objects have changed, can be considered as the transmission of a signal from one object to another. Changing the state of an object when a signal is transmitted to it is called signal registration.

A signal or a sequence of signals forms a message that can be perceived by the recipient in one form or another, as well as in one or another volume. Information in physics is a term that qualitatively generalizes the concepts of “signal” and “message”. If signals and messages can be quantified, then we can say that signals and messages are units of measurement of the volume of information. The message (signal) is interpreted differently by different systems. For example, a successively long and two short beeps in Morse code terminology is the letter de (or D), in BIOS terminology from AWARD - a video card malfunction.

The role of information in mathematics

In mathematics, information theory (mathematical communication theory) is a section of applied mathematics that defines the concept of information, its properties and establishes limiting relationships for data transmission systems. The main branches of information theory are source coding (compression coding) and channel (noise-resistant) coding. Mathematics is more than a scientific discipline. It creates a unified language for all Science.

The subject of mathematics research is abstract objects: number, function, vector, set, and others. Moreover, most of them are introduced axiomatically (axiom), i.e. without any connection with other concepts and without any definition.

Information is not part of the study of mathematics. However, the word "information" is used in mathematical terms - self-information and mutual information, related to the abstract (mathematical) part of information theory. However, in mathematical theory the concept of “information” is associated with exclusively abstract objects - random variables, while in modern information theory this concept is considered much more broadly - as a property of material objects. The connection between these two identical terms is undeniable. It was the mathematical apparatus of random numbers that was used by the author of information theory, Claude Shannon. He himself means by the term “information” something fundamental (irreducible). Shannon's theory intuitively assumes that information has content. Information reduces overall uncertainty and information entropy. The amount of information is measurable. However, he warns researchers against mechanically transferring concepts from his theory to other areas of science.

“The search for ways to apply information theory in other fields of science does not come down to a trivial transfer of terms from one field of science to another. This search is carried out in a long process of putting forward new hypotheses and their experimental testing.” K. Shannon.

The role of information in cybernetics

The founder of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener, spoke about information like this:

Information is not matter or energy, information is information." But the basic definition of information, which he gave in several of his books, is the following: information is a designation of content received by us from the external world, in the process of adapting us and our feelings.

Information is the basic concept of cybernetics, just as economic information is the basic concept of economic cybernetics.

There are many definitions of this term, they are complex and contradictory. The reason, obviously, is that cybernetics as a phenomenon is studied by different sciences, and cybernetics is only the youngest of them. Information is the subject of study of such sciences as management science, mathematical statistics, genetics, the theory of mass media (print, radio, television), computer science, which deals with the problems of scientific and technical information, etc. Finally, in recent times Philosophers show great interest in the problems of energy: they tend to consider energy as one of the main universal properties of matter, associated with the concept of reflection. With all interpretations of the concept of information, it presupposes the existence of two objects: the source of information and the consumer (recipient) of information. The transmission of information from one to another occurs with the help of signals, which, generally speaking, may not have any physical connection with its meaning: this communication is determined by agreement. For example, ringing the veche bell meant that one had to gather for the square, but to those who did not know about this order, he did not communicate any information.

In a situation with a veche bell, the person participating in the agreement on the meaning of the signal knows that at the moment there can be two alternatives: the veche meeting will take place or not. Or, in the language of the theory of information, an uncertain event (veche) has two outcomes. The received signal leads to a decrease in uncertainty: the person now knows that the event (evening) has only one outcome - it will take place. However, if it was known in advance that the meeting would take place at such and such an hour, the bell did not announce anything new. It follows that the less probable (i.e., more unexpected) the message, the more information it contains, and vice versa, the greater the probability of the outcome before the event occurs, the less information it contains. Approximately the same reasoning was made in the 40s. XX century to the emergence of a statistical, or “classical” theory of information, which defines the concept of information through the measure of reducing the uncertainty of knowledge about the occurrence of an event (this measure was called entropy). The origins of this science were N. Wiener, K. Shannon and Soviet scientists A. N. Kolmogorov, V. A. Kotelnikov and others. They were able to derive mathematical laws for measuring the amount of information, and hence such concepts as channel capacity and ., storage capacity of I. devices, etc., which served as a powerful incentive for the development of cybernetics as a science and electronic computing technology as a practical application of the achievements of cybernetics.

As for determining the value and usefulness of information for the recipient, there is still a lot that is unresolved and unclear. If we proceed from the needs of economic management and, therefore, economic cybernetics, then information can be defined as all that information, knowledge, and messages that help solve a particular management problem (that is, reduce the uncertainty of its outcomes). Then some opportunities open up for evaluating information: the more useful and valuable it is, the sooner or with less cost it leads to solving the problem. The concept of information is close to the concept of data. However, there is a difference between them: data are signals from which information still needs to be extracted. Data processing is the process of bringing them into a form suitable for this.

The process of their transmission from source to consumer and perception as information can be considered as passing through three filters:

Physical, or statistical (purely quantitative limitation on channel capacity, regardless of the data content, i.e. from the point of view of syntactics);

Semantic (selection of those data that can be understood by the recipient, i.e. correspond to the thesaurus of his knowledge);

Pragmatic (selection among understood information of those that are useful for solving a given problem).

This is clearly shown in the diagram taken from E. G. Yasin’s book on economic information. Accordingly, three aspects of the study of linguistic problems are distinguished - syntactic, semantic and pragmatic.

According to the content, information is divided into socio-political, socio-economic (including economic information), scientific and technical, etc. In general, there are many classifications of information; they are based on various bases. As a rule, due to the proximity of concepts, data classifications are constructed in the same way. For example, information is divided into static (constant) and dynamic (variable), and data is divided into constant and variable. Another division is primary, derivative, output information (data are also classified in the same way). The third division is I. controlling and informing. Fourth - redundant, useful and false. Fifth - complete (continuous) and selective. This idea by Wiener gives a direct indication of the objectivity of the information, i.e. its existence in nature is independent of human consciousness (perception).

Modern cybernetics defines objective information as the objective property of material objects and phenomena to generate a variety of states that, through the fundamental interactions of matter, are transmitted from one object (process) to another and are imprinted in its structure. A material system in cybernetics is considered as a set of objects that themselves can be in different states, but the state of each of them is determined by the states of other objects of the system.

In nature, many states of a system represent information; the states themselves represent the primary code, or source code. Thus, every material system is a source of information. Cybernetics defines subjective (semantic) information as the meaning or content of a message.

The role of information in computer science

The subject of science is data: methods of its creation, storage, processing and transmission. Content (also: “filling” (in context), “site content”) is a term meaning all types of information (both text and multimedia - images, audio, video) that make up the content (visualized, for the visitor, content) of the web -site. It is used to separate the concept of information that makes up the internal structure of a page/site (code) from what will ultimately be displayed on the screen.

The word “information” comes from the Latin word informatio, which means information, explanation, introduction. The concept of “information” is basic in a computer science course, but it is impossible to define it through other, more “simple” concepts.

The following approaches to determining information can be distinguished:

Traditional (ordinary) - used in computer science: Information is information, knowledge, messages about the state of affairs that a person perceives from the outside world using the senses (vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch).

Probabilistic - used in the theory of information: Information is information about objects and phenomena of the environment, their parameters, properties and state, which reduce the degree of uncertainty and incomplete knowledge about them.

Information is stored, transmitted and processed in symbolic (sign) form. The same information can be presented in different forms:

Sign writing, consisting of various signs, among which symbolic ones are distinguished in the form of text, numbers, specials. characters; graphic; tabular, etc.;

In the form of gestures or signals;

Oral verbal form (conversation).

Information is presented using languages ​​as sign systems, which are built on the basis of a specific alphabet and have rules for performing operations on signs. Language is a specific sign system for presenting information. Exist:

Natural languages ​​are spoken languages ​​in spoken and written form. In some cases, spoken language can be replaced by the language of facial expressions and gestures, the language of special signs (for example, road signs);

Formal languages ​​are special languages ​​for various areas of human activity, which are characterized by a strictly fixed alphabet and more strict rules of grammar and syntax. This is the language of music (notes), the language of mathematics (numbers, mathematical symbols), number systems, programming languages, etc. The basis of any language is the alphabet - a set of symbols/signs. The total number of symbols of the alphabet is usually called the power of the alphabet.

Information media is a medium or physical body for transmitting, storing and reproducing information. (These are electrical, light, thermal, sound, radio signals, magnetic and laser disks, printed publications, photographs, etc.)

Information processes are processes associated with receiving, storing, processing and transmitting information (i.e., actions performed with information). Those. These are processes during which the content of information or the form of its presentation changes.

To ensure the information process, a source of information, a communication channel and a consumer of information are required. The source transmits (sends) information, and the receiver receives (perceives) it. The transmitted information travels from the source to the receiver using a signal (code). Changing the signal allows you to obtain information.

Being an object of transformation and use, information is characterized by the following properties:

Syntax is a property that determines the way information is presented on a medium (in a signal). Thus, this information is presented on electronic media using a specific font. Here you can also consider such information presentation parameters as font style and color, its size, line spacing, etc. The selection of the necessary parameters as syntactic properties is obviously determined by the intended method of transformation. For example, for a person with poor vision, the size and color of the font is important. If you plan to enter this text into a computer via a scanner, the paper size is important;

Semantics is a property that determines the meaning of information as the correspondence of the signal to the real world. Thus, the semantics of the “computer science” signal lies in the definition given earlier. Semantics can be considered as some agreement, known to the consumer of information, about what each signal means (the so-called interpretation rule). For example, it is the semantics of signals that a novice motorist studies, studying the rules of the road, learning road signs (in this case, the signs themselves are the signals). The semantics of words (signals) is learned by a student of a foreign language. We can say that the point of teaching computer science is to study the semantics of various signals - the essence of the key concepts of this discipline;

Pragmatics is a property that determines the influence of information on consumer behavior. Thus, the pragmatics of the information received by the reader of this textbook is, at the very least, successful passing of the computer science exam. I would like to believe that the pragmatics of this work will not be limited to this, and it will serve for the further education and professional activities of the reader.

It should be noted that signals that differ in syntax can have the same semantics. For example, the signals “computer” and “computer” mean an electronic device for converting information. In this case, we usually talk about signal synonymy. On the other hand, one signal (i.e., information with one syntactic property) may have different pragmatics for consumers and different semantics. Thus, a road sign known as a “brick” and having a very specific semantics (“entry prohibited”) means for a motorist a ban on entry, but has no effect on a pedestrian. At the same time, the “key” signal can have different semantics: a treble clef, a spring clef, a key for opening a lock, a key used in computer science to encode a signal in order to protect it from unauthorized access (in this case they talk about signal homonymy). There are signals - antonyms that have opposite semantics. For example, “cold” and “hot”, “fast” and “slow”, etc.

The subject of study of the science of computer science is data: methods of their creation, storage, processing and transmission. And the information itself recorded in the data, its meaningful meaning, is of interest to users of information systems who are specialists in various sciences and fields of activity: a physician is interested in medical information, a geologist is interested in geological information, an entrepreneur is interested in commercial information, etc. (In particular, a computer scientist is interested in information on working with data).

Semiotics - science of information

Information cannot be imagined without its receipt, processing, transmission, etc., that is, outside the framework of information exchange. All acts of information exchange are carried out through symbols or signs, with the help of which one system influences another. Therefore, the main science that studies information is semiotics - the science of signs and sign systems in nature and society (theory of signs). In each act of information exchange one can find three “participants”, three elements: a sign, an object that it designates, and a recipient (user) of the sign.

Depending on the relationships between which elements are considered, semiotics is divided into three sections: syntactics, semantics and pragmatics. Syntactics studies signs and the relationships between them. At the same time, it abstracts from the content of the sign and its practical meaning for the recipient. Semantics studies the relationship between signs and the objects they denote, while abstracting from the recipient of the signs and the value of the latter: for him. It is clear that studying the patterns of semantic representation of objects in signs is impossible without taking into account and using the general patterns of construction of any sign systems studied by syntactics. Pragmatics studies the relationship between signs and their users. Within the framework of pragmatics, all the factors that distinguish one act of information exchange from another, all questions of the practical results of using information and its value for the recipient are studied.

In this case, many aspects of the relationships of signs with each other and with the objects they denote are inevitably affected. Thus, the three sections of semiotics correspond to three levels of abstraction (distraction) from the characteristics of specific acts of information exchange. The study of information in all its diversity corresponds to the pragmatic level. Distracting from the recipient of information, excluding him from consideration, we move on to studying it at the semantic level. With the abstraction from the content of signs, the analysis of information is transferred to the level of syntactics. This interpenetration of the main sections of semiotics, associated with different levels of abstraction, can be represented using the diagram “Three sections of semiotics and their interrelation.” The measurement of information is carried out accordingly in three aspects: syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. The need for such different dimensions of information, as will be shown below, is dictated by the practice of designing and organizing the work of information systems. Let's consider a typical production situation.

At the end of the shift, the site planner prepares the production schedule data. This data enters the information and computing center (ICC) of the enterprise, where it is processed, and in the form of reports on the current state of production is issued to managers. Based on the data received, the workshop manager makes a decision to change the production plan for the next planning period or take any other organizational measures. Obviously, for the shop manager, the amount of information contained in the summary depends on the magnitude of the economic impact received from its use in decision-making, on how useful the information received was. For the site planner, the amount of information in the same message is determined by the accuracy of its correspondence with the actual state of affairs on the site and the degree of surprise of the reported facts. The more unexpected they are, the faster you need to report them to management, the more information there is in this message. For ICC workers, the number of characters and the length of the message carrying information will be of paramount importance, since it is this that determines the loading time of computer equipment and communication channels. At the same time, they are practically not interested in either the usefulness of information or the quantitative measure of the semantic value of information.

Naturally, when organizing a production management system and building decision selection models, we will use the usefulness of information as a measure of the informativeness of messages. When building an accounting and reporting system that provides management of data on the progress of the production process, the novelty of the information received should be taken as a measure of the amount of information. The organization of procedures for mechanical processing of information requires measuring the volume of messages in the form of the number of characters processed. These three fundamentally different approaches to measuring information are not contradictory or mutually exclusive. On the contrary, by measuring information on different scales, they allow a more complete and comprehensive assessment of the information content of each message and more effectively organize a production management system. According to the apt expression of Prof. NOT. Kobrinsky, when it comes to the rational organization of information flows, the quantity, novelty, and usefulness of information are as interconnected as the quantity, quality and cost of products in production.

Information in the material world

Information is one of the general concepts associated with matter. Information exists in any material object in the form of a variety of its states and is transferred from object to object in the process of their interaction. The existence of information as an objective property of matter logically follows from the known fundamental properties of matter - structure, continuous change (movement) and interaction of material objects.

The structure of matter manifests itself as the internal dismemberment of integrity, the natural order of connection of elements within the whole. In other words, any material object, from the subatomic particle of the Meta Universe (Big Bang) as a whole, is a system of interconnected subsystems. Due to continuous movement, understood in a broad sense as movement in space and development in time, material objects change their states. The states of objects also change during interactions with other objects. The set of states of a material system and all its subsystems represents information about the system.

Strictly speaking, due to uncertainty, infinity, and the properties of structure, the amount of objective information in any material object is infinite. This information is called complete. However, it is possible to distinguish structural levels with finite sets of states. Information that exists at a structural level with a finite number of states is called private. For private information, the concept of quantity of information makes sense.

From the above presentation, it is logical and simple to select a unit of measurement for the amount of information. Let's imagine a system that can be in only two equally probable states. Let's assign code “1” to one of them, and “0” to the other. This is the minimum amount of information that the system can contain. It is a unit of measurement of information and is called a bit. There are other, more difficult to define, methods and units for measuring the amount of information.

Depending on the material form of the medium, information is of two main types - analog and discrete. Analog information changes continuously over time and takes values ​​from a continuum of values. Discrete information changes at some points in time and takes values ​​from a certain set of values. Any material object or process is the primary source of information. All its possible states make up the information source code. The instantaneous value of states is represented as a symbol (“letter”) of this code. In order for information to be transmitted from one object to another as a receiver, it is necessary that there be some kind of intermediate material medium that interacts with the source. Such carriers in nature, as a rule, are rapidly propagating processes of wave structure - cosmic, gamma and x-ray radiation, electromagnetic and sound waves, potentials (and perhaps not yet discovered waves) of the gravitational field. When electromagnetic radiation interacts with an object as a result of absorption or reflection, its spectrum changes, i.e. the intensities of some wavelengths change. The harmonics of sound vibrations also change during interactions with objects. Information is also transmitted through mechanical interaction, but mechanical interaction, as a rule, leads to large changes in the structure of objects (up to their destruction), and the information is greatly distorted. Distortion of information during its transmission is called disinformation.

The transfer of source information to the structure of the medium is called encoding. In this case, the source code is converted into the carrier code. The medium with the source code transferred to it in the form of a carrier code is called a signal. The signal receiver has its own set of possible states, which is called the receiver code. A signal, interacting with a receiving object, changes its state. The process of converting a signal code into a receiver code is called decoding. The transfer of information from a source to a receiver can be considered as information interaction. Information interaction is fundamentally different from other interactions. In all other interactions of material objects, an exchange of matter and (or) energy occurs. In this case, one of the objects loses matter or energy, and the other gains it. This property of interactions is called symmetry. During information interaction, the receiver receives information, but the source does not lose it. Information interaction is asymmetrical. Objective information itself is not material, it is a property of matter, such as structure, movement, and exists on material media in the form of its own codes.

Information in wildlife

Wildlife is complex and diverse. The sources and receivers of information in it are living organisms and their cells. An organism has a number of properties that distinguish it from inanimate material objects.

Basic:

Continuous exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment;

Irritability, the body’s ability to perceive and process information about changes in the environment and internal environment of the body;

Excitability, the ability to respond to stimuli;

Self-organization, manifested as changes in the body to adapt to environmental conditions.

An organism, considered as a system, has a hierarchical structure. This structure relative to the organism itself is divided into internal levels: molecular, cellular, organ level and, finally, the organism itself. However, the organism also interacts above organismal living systems, the levels of which are population, ecosystem and all living nature as a whole (biosphere). Flows of not only matter and energy, but also information circulate between all these levels. Information interactions in living nature occur in the same way as in inanimate nature. At the same time, living nature in the process of evolution has created a wide variety of sources, carriers and receivers of information.

The reaction to the influences of the external world is manifested in all organisms, since it is caused by irritability. In higher organisms, adaptation to the external environment is a complex activity, which is effective only with sufficiently complete and timely information about the environment. The receivers of information from the external environment are their sense organs, which include vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and the vestibular apparatus. In the internal structure of organisms there are numerous internal receptors associated with the nervous system. The nervous system consists of neurons, the processes of which (axons and dendrites) are analogous to information transmission channels. The main organs that store and process information in vertebrates are the spinal cord and the brain. In accordance with the characteristics of the senses, information perceived by the body can be classified as visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory and tactile.

When the signal reaches the retina of the human eye, it excites its constituent cells in a special way. Nerve impulses from cells are transmitted through axons to the brain. The brain remembers this sensation in the form of a certain combination of states of its constituent neurons. (The example is continued in the section “Information in Human Society”). By accumulating information, the brain creates a connected information model of the surrounding world on its structure. In living nature, an important characteristic for an organism that receives information is its availability. The amount of information that the human nervous system is capable of sending to the brain when reading texts is approximately 1 bit per 1/16 s.

The study of organisms is complicated by their complexity. The abstraction of structure as a mathematical set, which is acceptable for inanimate objects, is hardly acceptable for a living organism, because in order to create a more or less adequate abstract model of an organism, it is necessary to take into account all the hierarchical levels of its structure. Therefore, it is difficult to introduce a measure of the amount of information. It is very difficult to determine the connections between the components of the structure. If it is known which organ is the source of information, then what is the signal and what is the receiver?

Before the advent of computers, biology, which deals with the study of living organisms, used only qualitative, i.e. descriptive models. In a qualitative model, it is almost impossible to take into account information connections between the components of the structure. Electronic computing technology has made it possible to apply new methods in biological research, in particular, the machine modeling method, which involves a mathematical description of known phenomena and processes occurring in the body, adding to them hypotheses about some unknown processes and calculating possible behavior patterns of the organism. The resulting options are compared with the actual behavior of the organism, which makes it possible to determine the truth or falsity of the hypotheses put forward. Such models can also take into account information interaction. The information processes that ensure the existence of life itself are extremely complex. And although it is intuitively clear that this property is directly related to the formation, storage and transmission of complete information about the structure of the organism, an abstract description of this phenomenon seemed impossible for some time. However, the information processes that ensure the existence of this property have been partially revealed through deciphering the genetic code and reading the genomes of various organisms.

Information in human society

The development of matter in the process of movement is directed towards complicating the structure of material objects. One of the most complex structures is the human brain. So far, this is the only structure known to us that has a property that man himself calls consciousness. Speaking about information, we, as thinking beings, a priori mean that information, in addition to its presence in the form of signals we receive, also has some meaning. By forming a model of the surrounding world in his mind as an interconnected set of models of its objects and processes, a person uses semantic concepts rather than information. Meaning is the essence of any phenomenon, which does not coincide with itself and connects it with the broader context of reality. The word itself directly indicates that the semantic content of information can only be formed by thinking receivers of information. In human society, it is not the information itself that is of decisive importance, but its semantic content.

Example (continued). Having experienced such a sensation, a person assigns the concept “tomato” to the object, and the concept “red color” to its state. In addition, his consciousness fixes the connection: “tomato” - “red”. This is the meaning of the received signal. (Example continued below in this section). The brain's ability to create meaningful concepts and connections between them is the basis of consciousness. Consciousness can be considered as a self-developing semantic model of the surrounding world. Meaning is not information. Information exists only on a tangible medium. Human consciousness is considered immaterial. Meaning exists in the human mind in the form of words, images and sensations. A person can pronounce words not only out loud, but also “to himself.” He can also create (or remember) images and sensations “in his own mind.” However, he can retrieve information corresponding to this meaning by speaking or writing words.

Example (continued). If the words “tomato” and “red” are the meaning of the concepts, then where is the information? Information is contained in the brain in the form of certain states of its neurons. It is also contained in printed text consisting of these words, and when encoding letters with a three-bit binary code, its quantity is 120 bits. If you say the words out loud, there will be much more information, but the meaning will remain the same. The visual image carries the greatest amount of information. This is reflected even in folklore - “it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.” The information restored in this way is called semantic information, since it encodes the meaning of some primary information (semantics). Having heard (or seen) a phrase spoken (or written) in a language that a person does not know, he receives information, but cannot determine its meaning. Therefore, to convey the semantic content of information, some agreements between the source and the receiver about the semantic content of the signals are necessary, i.e. words Such agreements can be reached through communication. Communication is one of the most important conditions for the existence of human society.

In the modern world, information is one of the most important resources and, at the same time, one of the driving forces in the development of human society. Information processes occurring in the material world, living nature and human society are studied (or at least taken into account) by all scientific disciplines from philosophy to marketing. The increasing complexity of scientific research problems has led to the need to attract large teams of scientists from different specialties to solve them. Therefore, almost all of the theories discussed below are interdisciplinary. Historically, the study of information itself has been carried out by two complex branches of science - cybernetics and computer science.

Modern cybernetics is a multidisciplinary branch of science that studies highly complex systems, such as:

Human society (social cybernetics);

Economics (economic cybernetics);

Living organism (biological cybernetics);

The human brain and its function is consciousness (artificial intelligence).

Computer science, formed as a science in the middle of the last century, separated from cybernetics and is engaged in research in the field of methods for obtaining, storing, transmitting and processing semantic information. Both of these industries use several underlying scientific theories. These include information theory, and its sections - coding theory, algorithm theory and automata theory. Research into the semantic content of information is based on a set of scientific theories under the general name semiotics. Information theory is a complex, mainly mathematical theory that includes a description and assessment of methods for retrieving, transmitting, storing and classifying information. Considers information media as elements of an abstract (mathematical) set, and interactions between media as a way of arranging elements in this set. This approach makes it possible to formally describe the information code, that is, to define an abstract code and study it using mathematical methods. For these studies he uses methods of probability theory, mathematical statistics, linear algebra, game theory and other mathematical theories.

The foundations of this theory were laid by the American scientist E. Hartley in 1928, who determined the measure of the amount of information for certain communication problems. Later, the theory was significantly developed by the American scientist K. Shannon, Russian scientists A.N. Kolmogorov, V.M. Glushkov and others. Modern information theory includes sections such as coding theory, algorithm theory, digital automata theory (see below) and some others. There are also alternative information theories, for example “Qualitative Information Theory”, proposed by the Polish scientist M. Mazur. Every person is familiar with the concept of an algorithm, without even knowing it. Here is an example of an informal algorithm: “Cut the tomatoes into circles or slices. Place chopped onion in them, pour in vegetable oil, then sprinkle with finely chopped capsicum and stir. Before eating, sprinkle with salt, place in a salad bowl and garnish with parsley.” (Tomato salad).

The first rules for solving arithmetic problems in the history of mankind were developed by one of the famous scientists of antiquity, Al-Khorezmi, in the 9th century AD. In his honor, formalized rules for achieving any goal are called algorithms. The subject of the theory of algorithms is to find methods for constructing and evaluating effective (including universal) computational and control algorithms for information processing. To substantiate such methods, the theory of algorithms uses the mathematical apparatus of information theory. The modern scientific concept of algorithms as methods of information processing was introduced in the works of E. Post and A. Turing in the 20s of the twentieth century (Turing Machine). Russian scientists A. Markov (Markov's Normal Algorithm) and A. Kolmogorov made a great contribution to the development of the theory of algorithms. Automata theory is a branch of theoretical cybernetics that studies mathematical models of actually existing or fundamentally possible devices that process discrete information at discrete moments in time.

The concept of an automaton arose in the theory of algorithms. If there are some universal algorithms for solving computational problems, then there must also be devices (albeit abstract) for implementing such algorithms. Actually, an abstract Turing machine, considered in the theory of algorithms, is at the same time an informally defined automaton. The theoretical justification for the construction of such devices is the subject of automata theory. Automata theory uses the apparatus of mathematical theories - algebra, mathematical logic, combinatorial analysis, graph theory, probability theory, etc. Automata theory, together with the theory of algorithms, is the main theoretical basis for the creation of electronic computers and automated control systems. Semiotics is a complex of scientific theories that study the properties of sign systems. The most significant results were achieved in the section of semiotics - semantics. The subject of semantics research is the semantic content of information.

A sign system is considered to be a system of concrete or abstract objects (signs, words), with each of which a certain meaning is associated in a certain way. In theory, it has been proven that there can be two such comparisons. The first type of correspondence directly determines the material object that this word denotes and is called a denotation (or, in some works, a nominee). The second type of correspondence determines the meaning of a sign (word) and is called a concept. At the same time, such properties of comparisons as “meaning”, “truth”, “definability”, “following”, “interpretation”, etc. are studied. For research, the apparatus of mathematical logic and mathematical linguistics is used. Ideas of semantics, outlined by G. V. Leibniz and F de Saussure in the 19th century, formulated and developed by C. Pierce (1839-1914), C. Morris (b. 1901), R. Carnap (1891-1970), etc. The main achievement of the theory is the creation of a semantic analysis apparatus that allows one to represent the meaning of a text in a natural language in the form of a record in some formalized semantic (semantic) language. Semantic analysis is the basis for creating devices (programs) for machine translation from one natural language to another.

Information is stored by transferring it to some tangible media. Semantic information recorded on a tangible storage medium is called a document. Humanity learned to store information a very long time ago. The most ancient forms of storing information used the arrangement of objects - shells and stones on the sand, knots on a rope. A significant development of these methods was writing - a graphic representation of symbols on stone, clay, papyrus, and paper. The invention of printing was of great importance in the development of this direction. Over its history, humanity has accumulated a huge amount of information in libraries, archives, periodicals and other written documents.

Currently, storing information in the form of sequences of binary characters has gained particular importance. To implement these methods, a variety of storage devices are used. They are the central link of information storage systems. In addition to them, such systems use means of searching for information (search engine), means of obtaining information (information and reference systems) and means of displaying information (output device). Formed according to the purpose of the information, such information systems form databases, data banks and a knowledge base.

The transfer of semantic information is the process of its spatial transfer from the source to the recipient (addressee). Man learned to transmit and receive information even earlier than to store it. Speech is a method of transmission that our distant ancestors used in direct contact (conversation) - we still use it now. To transmit information over long distances, it is necessary to use much more complex information processes. To carry out such a process, information must be formatted (presented) in some way. To present information, various sign systems are used - sets of predetermined semantic symbols: objects, pictures, written or printed words of natural language. Semantic information about any object, phenomenon or process presented with their help is called a message.

Obviously, in order to transmit a message over a distance, information must be transferred to some kind of mobile medium. Carriers can move through space using vehicles, as happens with letters sent by mail. This method ensures complete reliability of the transmission of information, since the addressee receives the original message, but requires significant time for transmission. Since the middle of the 19th century, methods of transmitting information have become widespread using a naturally propagating information carrier - electromagnetic vibrations (electrical vibrations, radio waves, light). Implementation of these methods requires:

Preliminary transfer of information contained in a message to a medium - encoding;

Ensuring the transmission of the signal thus received to the recipient via a special communication channel;

Reverse conversion of the signal code into a message code - decoding.

The use of electromagnetic media makes the delivery of a message to the addressee almost instantaneous, but requires additional measures to ensure the quality (reliability and accuracy) of the transmitted information, since real communication channels are subject to natural and artificial interference. Devices that implement the data transfer process form communication systems. Depending on the method of presenting information, communication systems can be divided into sign (telegraph, telefax), sound (telephone), video and combined systems (television). The most developed communication system in our time is the Internet.

Data processing

Since information is not material, its processing involves various transformations. Processing processes include any transfer of information from a medium to another medium. Information intended for processing is called data. The main type of processing of primary information received by various devices is transformation into a form that ensures its perception by the human senses. Thus, photographs of space obtained in X-rays are converted into ordinary color photographs using special spectrum converters and photographic materials. Night vision devices convert the image obtained in infrared (thermal) rays into an image in the visible range. For some communication and control tasks, conversion of analog information is necessary. For this purpose, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal converters are used.

The most important type of processing of semantic information is determining the meaning (content) contained in a certain message. Unlike primary semantic information, it does not have statistical characteristics, that is, a quantitative measure - either there is meaning or there is not. And how much it is, if any, is impossible to establish. The meaning contained in the message is described in an artificial language that reflects the semantic connections between the words of the source text. A dictionary of such a language, called a thesaurus, is located in the message receiver. The meaning of words and phrases in a message is determined by assigning them to certain groups of words or phrases, the meaning of which has already been established. The thesaurus, thus, allows you to establish the meaning of the message and, at the same time, is replenished with new semantic concepts. The described type of information processing is used in information retrieval systems and machine translation systems.

One of the widespread types of information processing is the solution of computational problems and automatic control problems using computers. Information processing is always carried out for some purpose. To achieve it, the order of actions on information leading to a given goal must be known. This procedure is called an algorithm. In addition to the algorithm itself, you also need some device that implements this algorithm. In scientific theories, such a device is called an automaton. It should be noted that the most important feature of information is the fact that due to the asymmetry of information interaction, new information appears when processing information, but the original information is not lost.

Analog and digital information

Sound is wave vibrations in any medium, for example in air. When a person speaks, the vibrations of the throat ligaments are converted into wave vibrations of the air. If we consider sound not as a wave, but as vibrations at one point, then these vibrations can be represented as air pressure changing over time. Using a microphone, pressure changes can be detected and converted into electrical voltage. Air pressure is converted into electrical voltage fluctuations.

Such a transformation can occur according to various laws, most often the transformation occurs according to a linear law. For example, like this:

U(t)=K(P(t)-P_0),

where U(t) is the electrical voltage, P(t) is the air pressure, P_0 is the average air pressure, and K is the conversion factor.

Both electrical voltage and air pressure are continuous functions over time. The functions U(t) and P(t) are information about the vibrations of the throat ligaments. These functions are continuous and such information is called analog. Music is a special case of sound and it can also be represented as some kind of function of time. It will be an analog representation of music. But music is also written down in the form of notes. Each note has a duration that is a multiple of a predetermined duration, and a pitch (do, re, mi, fa, salt, etc.). If this data is converted into numbers, we get a digital representation of the music.

Human speech is also a special case of sound. It can also be represented in analog form. But just as music can be broken down into notes, speech can be broken down into letters. If each letter is given its own set of numbers, then we will get a digital representation of speech. The difference between analog and digital information is that analog information is continuous, while digital information is discrete. The transformation of information from one type to another, depending on the type of transformation, is called differently: simply "conversion", such as digital-to-analog conversion, or analog-to-digital conversion; complex transformations are called "coding", for example, delta coding, entropy coding; The conversion between characteristics such as amplitude, frequency or phase is called "modulation", for example amplitude-frequency modulation, pulse-width modulation.

Typically, analog conversions are quite simple and can be easily handled by various devices invented by man. A tape recorder converts magnetization on film into sound, a voice recorder converts sound into magnetization on film, a video camera converts light into magnetization on film, an oscilloscope converts electrical voltage or current into an image, etc. Converting analogue information to digital is much more difficult. The machine cannot make some transformations or succeeds with great difficulty. For example, converting speech into text, or converting a recording of a concert into sheet music, and even an inherently digital representation: text on paper is very difficult for a machine to convert into the same text in computer memory.

Why then use digital representation of information if it is so complex? The main advantage of digital information over analog information is noise immunity. That is, in the process of copying information, digital information is copied as it is, it can be copied almost an infinite number of times, while analog information becomes noisy during the copying process, and its quality deteriorates. Typically, analogue information can be copied no more than three times. If you have a two-cassette audio recorder, you can perform the following experiment: try rewriting the same song several times from cassette to cassette; after just a few such re-recordings you will notice how much The recording quality has deteriorated. The information on the cassette is stored in analog form. You can rewrite music in mp3 format as many times as you like, and the quality of the music does not deteriorate. The information in an mp3 file is stored digitally.

Amount of information

A person or some other receiver of information, having received a piece of information, resolves some uncertainty. Let's take the same tree as an example. When we saw the tree, we resolved a number of uncertainties. We learned the height of the tree, the type of tree, the density of the foliage, the color of the leaves and, if it was a fruit tree, then we saw the fruits on it, how ripe they were, etc. Before we looked at the tree, we did not know all this, after we looked at the tree, we resolved the uncertainty - we received information.

If we go out into a meadow and look at it, we will get a different kind of information, how big the meadow is, how tall the grass is and what color the grass is. If a biologist goes to this same meadow, then, among other things, he will be able to find out: what varieties of grass grow in the meadow, what type of meadow it is, he will see what flowers have bloomed, which ones are about to bloom, whether the meadow is suitable for grazing cows, etc. That is, he will receive more information than we do, since he had more questions before he looked at the meadow, the biologist will resolve more uncertainties.

The more uncertainty was resolved in the process of obtaining information, the more information we received. But this is a subjective measure of the amount of information, and we would like to have an objective measure. There is a formula for calculating the amount of information. We have some uncertainty, and we have N number of cases of resolution of the uncertainty, and each case has a certain probability of resolution, then the amount of information received can be calculated using the following formula that Shannon suggested to us:

I = -(p_1 \log_(2)p_1 + p_2 \log_(2)p_2 + ... +p_N \log_(2)p_N), where

I – amount of information;

N – number of outcomes;

p_1, p_2, ..., p_N are the probabilities of the outcome.

The amount of information is measured in bits - an abbreviation for the English words BInary digiT, which means binary digit.

For equally probable events, the formula can be simplified:

I = \log_(2)N, where

I – amount of information;

N – number of outcomes.

Let's take, for example, a coin and throw it on the table. It will land either heads or tails. We have 2 equally probable events. After we tossed the coin, we received \log_(2)2=1 bit of information.

Let's try to find out how much information we get after we roll the dice. The cube has six sides - six equally probable events. We get: \log_(2)6 \approx 2.6. After we threw the die on the table, we received approximately 2.6 bits of information.

The odds of us seeing a Martian dinosaur when we leave the house are one in ten billion. How much information will we get about the Martian dinosaur once we leave home?

-\left(((1 \over (10^(10))) \log_2(1 \over (10^(10))) + \left(( 1 - (1 \over (10^(10))) ) \right) \log_2 \left(( 1 - (1 \over (10^(10))) )\right)) \right) \approx 3.4 \cdot 10^(-9) bits.

Let's say we tossed 8 coins. We have 2^8 coin drop options. This means that after throwing coins we will get \log_2(2^8)=8 bits of information.

When we ask a question and are equally likely to receive a “yes” or “no” answer, then after answering the question we receive one bit of information.

It's amazing that if we apply Shannon's formula to analog information, we get an infinite amount of information. For example, the voltage at a point in an electrical circuit can take an equally probable value from zero to one volt. The number of outcomes we have is equal to infinity, and by substituting this value into the formula for equally probable events, we get infinity - an infinite amount of information.

Now I will show you how to code "War and Peace" using just one mark on any metal rod. Let's encode all the letters and signs found in "War and Peace" using two-digit numbers - they should be enough for us. For example, we will give the letter “A” the code “00”, the letter “B” the code “01” and so on, we will encode punctuation marks, Latin letters and numbers. Let's recode "War and Peace" using this code and get a long number, for example, 70123856383901874..., add a comma and a zero in front of this number (0.70123856383901874...). The result is a number from zero to one. Let's put a mark on the metal rod so that the ratio of the left side of the rod to the length of this rod is equal to exactly our number. Thus, if we suddenly want to read “War and Peace”, we simply measure the left side of the rod to the mark and the length of the entire rod, divide one number by another, get a number and recode it back into letters (“00” to “A”, "01" to "B", etc.).

In reality, we will not be able to do this, since we will not be able to determine the lengths with infinite accuracy. Some engineering problems prevent us from increasing the accuracy of measurements, and quantum physics shows us that after a certain limit, quantum laws will already interfere with us. Intuitively, we understand that the lower the measurement accuracy, the less information we receive, and the greater the measurement accuracy, the more information we receive. Shannon's formula is not suitable for measuring the amount of analog information, but there are other methods for this, which are discussed in Information Theory. In computer technology, a bit corresponds to the physical state of the information carrier: magnetized - not magnetized, there is a hole - there is no hole, charged - not charged, reflects light - does not reflect light, high electrical potential - low electrical potential. In this case, one state is usually denoted by the number 0, and the other by the number 1. Any information can be encoded with a sequence of bits: text, image, sound, etc.

Along with a bit, a value called a byte is often used; it is usually equal to 8 bits. And if a bit allows you to choose one equally probable option from two possible ones, then a byte is 1 out of 256 (2^8). It is also common to use larger units to measure the amount of information:

1 KB (one kilobyte) 210 bytes = 1024 bytes

1 MB (one megabyte) 210 KB = 1024 KB

1 GB (one gigabyte) 210 MB = 1024 MB

In reality, the SI prefixes kilo-, mega-, giga- should be used for the factors 10^3, 10^6 and 10^9, respectively, but historically there has been a practice of using factors with powers of two.

A Shannon bit and a bit used in computer technology are the same if the probabilities of a zero or a one appearing in a computer bit are equal. If the probabilities are not equal, then the amount of information according to Shannon becomes less, we saw this in the example of the Martian dinosaur. The computer quantity of information provides an upper estimate of the quantity of information. Volatile memory, after power is applied to it, is usually initialized with some value, for example, all ones or all zeros. It is clear that after power is applied to the memory, there is no information there, since the values ​​​​in the memory cells are strictly defined, there is no uncertainty. Memory can store a certain amount of information, but after power is applied to it, there is no information in it.

Disinformation is deliberately false information provided to an enemy or business partner for more effective combat operations, cooperation, checking for information leakage and the direction of its leakage, identifying potential clients of the black market. Also disinformation (also misinformed) is the process of manipulating information itself, such as: misleading someone by providing incomplete information or complete but no longer necessary information, distorting the context, distorting part of the information.

The goal of such influence is always the same - the opponent must act as the manipulator needs. The action of the target against whom disinformation is directed may consist in making a decision that the manipulator needs or in refusing to make a decision that is unfavorable for the manipulator. But in any case, the final goal is the action that will be taken by the opponent.

Disinformation, therefore, is a product of human activity, an attempt to create a false impression and, accordingly, push towards the desired actions and/or inaction.

Types of disinformation:

Misleading a specific person or group of people (including an entire nation);

Manipulation (the actions of one person or group of people);

Creating public opinion regarding a problem or object.

Misrepresentation is nothing more than outright deception, the provision of false information. Manipulation is a method of influence aimed directly at changing the direction of people's activity. The following levels of manipulation are distinguished:

Strengthening the values ​​(ideas, attitudes) that exist in people’s minds and are beneficial to the manipulator;

Partial change in views on a particular event or circumstance;

A radical change in life attitudes.

Creating public opinion is the formation in society of a certain attitude towards a chosen problem.

Sources and links

ru.wikipedia.org – free encyclopedia Wikipedia

youtube.com - YouTube video hosting

images.yandex.ua - Yandex pictures

google.com.ua - Google images

ru.wikibooks.org - Wikibooks

inf1.info – Planet Informatics

old.russ.ru – Russian Magazine

shkolo.ru – Information directory

5byte.ru – Computer science website

ssti.ru – Information technologies

klgtu.ru - Computer Science

informatika.sch880.ru - website of computer science teacher O.V. Podvintseva

bibliofond.ru - electronic library Bibliofond

life-prog.ru - programming

Information sources are systems whose components ensure the placement, integrity and availability of information for its intended purpose.

Depending on the type of object you are interested in, sources can be classified in some way.

Types of information sources

1. open or relatively accessible;

2. semi-open (not completely secret, but controlled by someone);

3. closed.

Sources of information may be:

1. knowledgeable people;

2. documents;

3. wired and wireless communications.

Knowledgeable persons are those people who clearly or potentially have the necessary information. These are sources of information such as:

1) Experts, i.e. individuals whose professional contacts and knowledge (work, hobbies) allow them to navigate the issue of interest. They can provide basic materials and lead to new sources of information.

2) Informants are individuals from the enemy group who supply material about the activities of their employer. The veracity of the materials they provide may be quite high.

3) Frightened are all knowledgeable people who provide information under pressure. In this case, the truth of what is reported is not guaranteed.

4) Agents are trusted people who are surrounded by the object. The reliability of the data they supply depends on their individual qualities.

Sources of information, which are knowledgeable people, can also be other persons who happen to have the necessary data.

Documents as sources of information:

1) Official documents characterizing the object.

2) Archives and business papers.

3) Computer storage media - databases, disks, flash drives, etc., from which you can print the necessary information.

4) Personal archives and papers - notebooks, notes on calendars, etc.

5) Garbage - accidentally lost or discarded drafts and notes.

6) Published information is publications in newspapers, on Internet sites, television and radio stories, lectures and speeches given by someone.

Technical means of communication

Sources of information can be means of wired and wireless communications (various technical means of processing and

These include:

1) Corded phones. In this case, we are given information or it is listened to by special services in order to find out what interests them. At the same time, it is possible to wiretap not only telephone conversations, but also what is said behind closed doors with the handset on the hook.

2) Mobile communications and pagers. Such devices are available for listening by regular on-air radio interception with an appropriate scanner, if there is no special protection.

3) Telegraph, telefax, teletype. Through the channels of such devices, graphic and symbolic information circulates, which is displayed on paper, which is very convenient in business communications and relationships.

4) Personal radios that are used for civil and official radio communications. If the object does not provide special means of protection, then intercepting signals from such a radio station does not require much effort.

5) Many organizations have local networks for communication between computers with Internet access. This allows you to connect to the cable and “count” the information that is in the computer’s memory directly and that which is transmitted over the network.

It should be borne in mind that the information needed to make the right decision is usually either expensive or not available at all. The cost of information must include the time spent by managers and subordinates to collect it. Therefore, it remains to be decided how significant the benefit from this information is.