Book Review — The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick
A Brief Summary of Information Theory
I initially saw this book, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood by James Gleick, recommended from Mark Manson’s Nine Books that Explains How the World Works. Because information theory always intrigues me, I picked up the book and am glad I did. This article is about a few sparks I have learned, given the author’s excellent writing on information theory and vivid recounts of its far-reaching implications for various aspects of the world, culture, and our daily lives.
Overview
The book has roughly three parts, as implied and listed in the title. Briefly speaking, the book starts with the history of information about the time long before the term itself came into existence. More accurately, it is the history of how human ancestors communicated.
Gradually, the author delved into the era before and when Claude Shannon developed the information theory. This part also intertwines with the invention of computing machines, particularly the Turing machine and Baggage’s analytical engine one century before Turing. It is the most fascinating part of the book. I am in awe of those intellectual giants and their genius work impacting the humanity of later generations even today.
