QUANTITY OF INFORMATION

How should we measure the quantity of information? The smallest unit of information is a “yes” or a “no,” a check mark (✓) or a cross (✕), an impulse in a nerve or no impulse, a 1 or a 0, black or white, good or bad, etc. This twofold difference is called a binary digit of information ([see Supplement 2]). It is the convenient unit of information.

SCHEMES FOR EXPRESSING MEANINGS

Example:
/——————^—————————\
No.Principle
of Scheme		SignUsed inSignificanceName of
Scheme
(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)
Sounds
1.Sound of new
word is like
sound of
referent		Bobwhite[2]Spoken
English		kind of quail,
so called
from its note		Imitative;
bowwow
theory
2.An utterance
becomes a
new word		Pooh![3]Spoken
English		The speaker
expresses
disdain		Pooh-pooh
theory
3.New word is
like another
word		Chortle[4]Spoken
English;
invented by
Lewis Carroll,
1896		“Chuckle”
and
“snort”
blended		Analogical
4.Word has
been used
through
the ages		Mother[5]Spoken
English		Female
parent		Historical
Sights
5.Picture
is like
referent		Egyptian;
Ojibwa
(American
Indian)		Picture of
eye and
tears, to
mean grief		Imitative;
pictographic
6.Pattern is
symbol of
an idea		5English;
French;
German;
etc.		Five;
cinq;
fünf;
etc.		Ideographic;
mathematical;
symbolic;
numeric
Mapping of Sounds
7.Object
pictured
as the
wanted
sound		Possible
English		Picture of
a knot to
mean “not”		Rebus-
writing;
phonographic
8.Pattern is
symbol for
a large
ound unit		Ancient
Cypriote
(island of
Cyprus)		Sign for
the
syllable
mu		Syllable-
writing
9.Pattern is
symbol for
a small
sound unit		ƷInternational
Phonetic
Alphabet of
87 characters		The sound
zh, as
s in
“measure”		Phonetic
writing
alphabetic
writing;
Mapping of Sights or Symbols
10.Systematic
combinations
of 26
letters		 ENIACAbbreviations,
etc.		Initial
letters
of a
5-word
title		Alphabetic
coding
11.Systematic
combinations
of 10 digits		135-03-1228Abbreviations,
nomenclature,
etc.		Social
Security
No. of
a person		Numeric
coding
12.Systematic
combinations
of 2 marks		✓,✕,✕,✓,✓Checking
lists,
etc.		“yes,” “no,”
“no,” “yes,”
“yes,”
respectively		Binary
coding

With 2 units of information or 2 binary digits (1 or 0) we can represent 4 pieces of information:

00, 01, 10, 11

With 3 units of information we can represent 8 pieces of information:

000, 001, 010, 011, 100, 101, 110, 111

With 4 units of information we can represent 16 pieces of information:

0000000100100011
0100010101100111
1000100110101011
1100110111101111