Trudeau, Garry
truth, 2.1, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5
Turing, Alan, prl.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 9.1, 14.1
Turing machine(s)
capabilities
as code generator
proof of incompleteness theorem by, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 12.1
significance of, in computer science, 12.1, 12.2
states
symbols
tape, 7.1, 7.2
thermodynamics of, 13.1, 13.2
two-state model
U machine, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 12.1
Turing Test, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
Twitter, 11.1, epl.1, epl.2
Uglow, Jenny
uncertainty
entropy as measure of, 7.1, 9.1, 9.2
incompleteness theorem and, 7.1, 12.1
information and
limits to science, 12.1, 12.2
in measurement of quantum properties, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3
uncomputability, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5
undecidability; see decision problem
uninteresting numbers, 12.1, 12.2
University of Vienna
Updike, John
Uruk, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
Vail, Alfred, 1.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 7.1
Vail, Theodore N., 6.1, 6.2
VanArsdale, Daniel W.
van Leeuwenhoek, Antony, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1
Vautroullier, Thomas
Verne, Jules
Victoria, Queen, 5.1, 6.1
Vienna Circle, 6.1, 6.2
Vigenère cipher, 5.1, 7.1, 7.2
Vincent of Beauvais
viruses, prl.1, 11.1, 11.2
vocabulary size, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9
growth of language, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4
Shakespeare’s
Volta, Alessandro
von Foerster, Heinz, 8.1, epl.1
von Neumann, John, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.1, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 13.1
Voyager spacecraft
Wales, Jimmy, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5
Wallace, David Foster
Walton, Stephen, 11.1, 11.2
Washington, George
Wassall, Irma
Watson, David L.
Watson, James D., 7.1, 7.2, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 13.1
Watson, John B.
Watts, Duncan, epl.1, epl.2
Weaver, Edmund
Weaver, Warren, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Weber, Wilhelm
Webster, Noah
Wells, H. G., 6.1, 9.1, 14.1, epl.1, epl.2
Well-Tempered Clavier (Bach), 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
Western Union Telegraph Company
Weyl, Hermann, prl.1, 6.1
What Is Life? (Schrödinger)
Wheatstone, Charles, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3
Wheeler, John Archibald, prl.1, prl.2, 12.1, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3
Whitehead, Alfred North, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1
Whitman, Walt, epl.1, epl.2
Whitmore, Georgiana
Wiener, Norbert, prl.1, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10, 8.11, 8.12, 8.13, 8.14, 8.15, 8.16, 8.17, 8.18, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 12.1
Wikipedia, 12.1, 12.2, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 14.8, 14.9, 14.10, 14.11, 14.12, 15.1, epl.1
Wilkes, Charles
Wilkins, John, 5.1, 5.2
Wilson, Edward O.
Wilson, Thomas
wire fences, 6.1, 6.2
Wisdom of Crowds (Surowiecki)
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 3.1, 6.1, 6.2, 8.1
World Brain (Wells)
World Congress of Universal Documentation
Wright, Sylvia
writing
abstract thinking and
alphabet-based, 2.1, 2.2
criticism of communicative capacity of, 2.1, 2.2
cryptography and, 5.1, 5.2
cuneiform, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7
in development of mathematics, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
extension of time and space in
historical development of, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
levels of representation in
memory and, 2.1, 2.2
modes and uses of information arising from, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
origins of logic in, 2.1, 2.2
second age of orality and, 2.1, 2.2
self-awareness in, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
as technology
thinking and, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
Wyman, Bill, 14.1, 14.2
Wynter, Andrew, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4
X System, prl.1, prl.2, 7.1
Yahoo!
Yaunde language
YouTube
ALSO BY JAMES GLEICK
Chaos: Making a New Science
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything
What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier
Isaac Newton
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Gleick was born in New York City in 1954. His previous books include Chaos and Genius, both Pulitzer Prize finalists and National Book Award nominees. His last book, Isaac Newton, was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist. They have been translated into more than twenty languages. His Web site is at www.around.com.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
4.1 Photograph courtesy of the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
6.1 The New York Times Archive/Redux
7.1 Copyright Robert Lord
7.2 Reprinted with permission from Journal Franklin Institute, vol. 262, E. F. Moore and C. E. Shannon, “Reliable Circuits Using Less Reliable Rays,” pp. 191–208, © 1956, with permission from Elsevier.
7.3 Taken from Claude Elwood Shannon Collected Papers, ed. NJA Sloane & Aaron Wyner © 1993 IEEE
7.4 Taken from Claude Elwood Shannon Collected Papers, ed. NJA Sloane & Aaron Wyner, © 1993 IEEE
7.5 © Mary E. Shannon
8.1 Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
8.2 Keystone/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
8.3 Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
9.1 Taken from Entropy and Energy Levels by Gasser & Richards (1974) Figs. 9.7, 9.8 pp. 117–118. By permission of Oxford University Press.
9.2 From Symbols, Signals & Noise by J. R. Pierce (Harper & Brothers, NY, 1961), p. 199.
9.3 Copyright © 2010 Stanley Angrist, reprinted by permission of Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
9.4 Reproduced from Fundamentals of Cybernetics, Lerner AY (Plenum Publishing Corp., NY 1975), p. 257.
9.5 Copyright © 2010 Stanley Angrist, reprinted by permission of Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group
12.1 Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
13.1 Christopher Fuchs
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1. Drums That Talk
Chapter 2. The Persistence of the Word
Chapter 3. Two Wordbooks
Chapter 4. To Throw the Powers of Thought into Wheel-Work
Chapter 5. A Nervous System for the Earth
Chapter 6. New Wires, New Logic
Chapter 7. Information Theory
Chapter 8. The Informational Turn
Chapter 9. Entropy and Its Demons
Chapter 10. Life’s Own Code
Chapter 11. Into the Meme Pool
Chapter 12. The Sense of Randomness
Chapter 13. Information Is Physical
Chapter 14. After the Flood
Chapter 15. New News Every Day
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
A Note About The Author
Illustration Credits
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James Gleick, The Information