A brief history of information by James Gleick

Greck （ author ） Not only the historical details are carefully restored in the book , Popular explanation of various theories , It also vividly depicts several unknown characters ： Programmable computer pioneer 、 Charles beyond the times · Babbage , The first programmer 、 ADA, the daughter of Byron, the poet · Byron , Father of Computer Science 、 Heaven is jealous of talents Alan · Turing , And the protagonist of the book 、 The father of information theory Claude · Shannon .

   in general ,《 Brief history of information 》 It's a history book . Information is completely abstract 、 Confused , From Greg's book, I just feel , Information runs through the history of human development , Today's achievements are accumulated little by little in the past . It starts with the drums of primitive tribes in Africa , Add logic and thinking while maintaining narrative , Closely connect the development of the entire information world . personally , I only did extensive reading of this book , Only in a few places “ Interesting ” You can read carefully on the small problems of . Because the book involves a lot of time, places, people and sentence quotations from all directions , If you bite words everywhere , Can read some “ code ” or “ Philosophical logic ” It's enough to drink several pots .

  “ When dialogue replaces listening , When individuality replaces commonness , When the closed turns to the open , People's ideological power has been released unprecedentedly , Information has become the primary productive force of society .” Information is a human mirror , It shows a variety of colors in the technological renewal and mode change . Take John, the first suspect wanted by telegram and hanged , The development of information not only breaks the barrier of communication , It also promotes the progress of social order .

   The book mentions a concept I have never heard of ： Meme . The universe does not necessarily breed life , The biosphere does not necessarily breed humans . If there is a biosphere in an inanimate world , What are the residents in the biosphere ？ It's thought . Thought has the power of transmission , Infectious . Does genetic evolution rely on thought to eliminate ？ It seems unlikely that , So is it There is A replicator , It exists in any compliance birth —— growth —— mature —— aging —— The periodic law of death within the organization , This replicator is called meme . Memes exist widely in human life . What we did , A dance , A piece of music , A joke is our meme , They are attached to objects , With the help of pen and ink and word of mouth , Or spread through broadcast towers and Digital Networks . From God's point of view , Meme is copying itself . I once felt that I must have “ Self-consciousness ” Can be counted as real life , But think about it , The self-consciousness of single celled creatures in ancient times , Isn't it called life ？ therefore , Meme is the essence of life , Based on a broader understanding of life , Life is a carnival of information dissemination , Meme logically drives each information carrier to transmit information to more new carriers .

   There are too many interesting literary stories and historical events mentioned . The interweaving of various events makes the description of something more comprehensive and interesting , Almost half of the stage of information development history has been left to those intelligent or ancient scientists in the West . No matter how people transmit information or at what stage of their cognition of something , I think it's all “ advanced ”, Because it is the wisdom creation of people in every era . In the existing foundation of mathematics , It is a great cause to exert creativity at the level of mechanical manufacturing and create the most advanced communication mode at present , It is precisely because of this creative demand , In turn, it stimulates Mathematics , The development of philosophy and industry .

   Shannon is in 1952 Annual estimates , It will take about six months for Sanming programmer , Only in this way can a large computer barely reach the level of amateurism . Today, , The news that the world's top players lost to AI is well known , Today, while people praise and value alpha dogs , Who would have thought that Shannon was criticized for achieving this goal ——“ I wonder , Do you, a young man, realize what you are playing with .” We should discover and create something that can promote history , let me put it another way , Enough to be later 《 Brief history of information new edition 》 Recorded things , There must be too much jumping in the cognitive category of the public , And this is something ordinary people can't do , This is also the greatness of great men .1952 Turing was convicted of homosexuality , Two years later, he committed suicide . It is hard to imagine that if society could tolerate more existence beyond their cognitive scope , What will Turing decorate the world today .