ON D E F I N I N G T H E C O N C E P T

IN M E A S U R E M E N T T H E O R Y

V. S. K a r p

OF " I N F O R M A T I O N "

UDC 621.391.001.11 : 681,2.08.001.11

An interest ing question is formulated in [1] about the philosophical, theoret ical , and prac t ica l aspects of i n -

formation both in the theory of measurements and in science generally. Infon~nation theory is acquiring great i m - portance nowadays. As i t is put in [1], "The only basis for modern information theory has been m a t h e m a t i c a l infor- mat ion theory, the task of which is to establish only the quanti tat ive characterist ics of information founded on the probabi l i ty -s ta t i s t ica l approach to it, and m a t h e m a t i c a l information theory is consciously taken in abstract ion from the prac t ica l analysis of the nature of information."

This is just fine. Information theory has a developed ma the ma t i c a l base. And while it is true that a t the m o - ment various different aspects of information are developing successfully, the expression "different approaches to un- derstanding i t" is unintel l igible .

There can be only one a p p r o a c h - f r o m the standpoint of ma the ma t i c a l information theory. It is quite simply

essential to consider in each concrete case the boundaries of its appl icabi l i ty , and also to establish whether this case corresponds to the conditions of appl icat ion.

It is thought that information in the t echn ica l sense can be expressed only quanti ta t ively, as a bearer of def t- nite meaning. But the qual i ta t ive side of information is of a purely emot ional nature (good or bad, soft or hard, deep or superficial , e tc .) . This concept c lear ly proceeded from the press. The quali ty of information lies at the founda- tion of any quanti tat ive characterist ic .

Having obtained as a result of measurement the value of the d iameter of a component, we can determine

whether i t is good or bad, whether i t satisfies our requirements or not. Consequently, i t is not necessary to speak of two different forms of information, since i t only obscures the essence of the question, and the same holds also for the s ta tement that the concept of information "has outgrown the bounds of information and turned into a general sc ient i - fic category." The simple truth is that with the development of any science its bounds extend. But when within the

sphere of a single science, there are a nmnber of phenomena which i t is impossible to explain, and new fields of knowl- edge open up. The si tuation with information science is not comparable , since i t has just begun to develop.

The concepts of "information" and "measuring information" are different things. By the word "information" we understand communicat ion, notif ication, warning, etc. , (again in an emot iona l sense), and by the concept of "measuring information," measurements as a process of rece iv ing and transforming information about the measured quanti ty with the ob jec t of obtaining a quanti ta t ive result from comparing i t with an accepted scale or unit of m e a - surement in the form most convenient for f a t h e r u t i l iza t ion by man or machine [2].

The best course of a l l would be to different iate these two concepts not only in fact but also in words.

In view of the fact that the concept of "information" in the sense of communicat ion, e tc . , has f irmly entered into the l i terature and into everyday use, but "measuring infon-nation" is a new concept; i t would be better to leave i t with old name of "theory of m e a s a e m e n t s . "

Moreover, the second approach to information as a relationship of ma te r i a l systems contradicts the concept in d i a l e c t i c a l mate r ia l i sm of the objec t iv i ty of the substance and energy, and consequently informational , content of matter . Otherwise we obtain the result that information exists only because there is someone to receive it.

Translated from Izmer i t e l ' naya Tekhnika, No. 6, pp. 91-92, June, 1970. Original ar t ic le submitted January 13, 1969.

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There remains the question of what terminology to adopt: "negentropy" or "information." But information exists objec~vely . It is necessary only to receive it. And how to receive i t - t h a t must be the business of the theory of measurement.

To define the theory of measurement (measuring information) as a PART of the total information about an ob- j ec t would be to impoverish the theory itself. The more the theory and pract ice of measurement develop, the great- er the number of different data about the object which interest us. From successive measurement of each parameter the transition is to simultaneous combined measurement of many parameters. With t ime their number increases sharp- ly, but they never reach a l imit .

So, having established that information about an object exists object ively, we note that the receivers of infor-

ma t ion are ma te r i a l receiving systems, existing object ively as a result of evolutionary development or created by man, the a im of which is to conserve the information for the future, process i t and use it.

To speak of the level of organizat ion of the receiver, st i l l more to identify everything with man only, would be incorrect , since we already know fairly complex information systems in the l iving world, and much sti l l remains

to be found out.

In connection with what has been said above, we may give the following definitions:

Information. A reflect ion of the substance-energy essence of mat ter , received by ma te r i a l systems in order to conserve, process and further ut i l ize it , and expressed in ordered data on the probabil i ty of an approach to that essence;

Measuring Theory. (Measuring information): ordered data on the probabil i ty of a character is t ic of a ma te r i a l object , obtained by comparison with an accepted scale or measuring unit in the form most convenient for further use by man or machine.

LITERATURE CITED

i. ~. P. Semenyuk, Izmeritel'. Tekh., No. 8 (1968). 2. P.V. Novitskii, Foundations of the Information Theory of Measuring Devices [in Russian], Energiya (1968).

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