Skip to main content

Information Theory

This is a very highly theoretical problem. What do you call an "Information"? To know that you have been informed. What does that mean? Analyst are always tyring to find the information from a mathematical functions and applying a probabilistic approach, from the trend or clusters of data.

But, what is information and how can you measure the value of the information. Just recently I had posted a article on modeling where, I talked about the Information Value. I might have skipped by saying that it has a mathematically rigorous process and needs in depth understanding of Information Theory. Well, let me try to explain it in as many few words as possible.

Information is something you don't know. It is something which you don't expect to happen. For example your future- so if someone tells your future, its an information. Is that confusing??

Actually, its quite simple. If someone tells you something you already know, then its not an information, cause it doesn't have any value, as you already know it. 

Therefore, even in a collection of data and in the correlation process, we try to figure out the best possible sets of variables that have the capability to predict the outcome variables. 


Lets take another example:

Lets say, you know that your schedule for train is at 12pm at night. Cause its in the ticket.

Now if someone says, that your departure time is 12pm....hmmm is that an information.

But, if someone comes to you and says, your train has been rescheduled due to the delay. Then that is an information- an information, that is useful. Anything not useful is not an information. (From what I have explained)

Mathematically, Information is inversely proportional to the probability of the occurrence of an event.

If p(E) is zero than it contains INFINITE information.
if p(E) is 1, which is the largest, then it contains ZERO information.


I hope that was simple enough.

Remember that the information that I am talking about is not the collection of a data. It is something that has value in terms of its existence.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Passion and Flying

There is an interesting aspect of flying which grasps everyone's imagination. The freedom and the control of moving around the space without any obstacle is just too much to ask for, in one man's life :). Isn't it? As a young kid like everyone, flying was a dream. Not to mention the great stories of Leonardo Da Vinci and the Wrights brothers, who not only dreamt but also went on designing one, would inspire you to believe that some day in future it would be possible to fly like a bird. So let me tell you a short story about myself where I took myself to some limit into achieving this. :) I have been wanting to tell this for a long time but never found any occasion or reason to do so. It was long ago when I was still in grade 3/4, should be around 1993. Space Channel was just installed in our house and I would spend time watching cartoons and other science programs. That was when I noticed gliders and parachutes. The shear simplicity of the design took me by surprise. ...

Social Theory in Online Community

Add as a friend, Join the group, Please Donate, Join a cause, Find a Date. Yes, all the things that you can do in the online social network. How interesting and imaginative!  But, do you think all the classical social theories apply to the online community . I mean does the human behaviour change in the Virtual World or is it the same any way? There are chances that the Virtual Worlds may see a human behaviour that is not seen in the real world. That might be strange. I mean, how can it vary. But the chances are that they will. This can be due to the new possibilities and the moral issues that bind us in the online network. The geographical barriers are breaking and a new kind of community is taking shape in the clouds and in the electrical database.  I have only one question. Is this the MATRIX ? Do you think that someday, we will be so into the virtual worlds that we will forget that the real world exists and that we may need some kind of saviour to make ourselves conscious of it. Th...

Aug 3rd : Meaning Behind It

screen-shots of my diary on August 3rd I live a philosophical life with full concentration on wholeness rather than a single celled ideology. So I have come to see that August 3rd is more important to me than my birthday, cause this is the day when I actually started my journey into the wilderness with full consiousness. It was on August 3 that I started my newly owned life in Bangalore. Remembering my uncertainty at that time, the only thing I was sure about was finding myself. I think I have in many ways found myself in last 3 years. There is this wonderful saying - "You change because you have not found yourself yet". So I am still changing and the process of perfecting continues. It also happens that unknowingly, I tend to take into new journey every August. May be its because of its position in the yearly calender. But beside me, I know that there are hundred of Nepalese students who embark on their educational journey to America, UK and other areas on this very...