Information - Do we know what we are talking about?

Abstract

Information is a framework concept, by which I mean that it pervades discussion of a very wide range of issues of contemporary relevance in a variety of disciplines. It is ubiquitous and dominant in many discussions of interest not just to specialists like ourselves but throughout the intellectual world. Yet like the material of any framework, it has a way of elluding direct attention. It exists only at the edges of our thoughts, at once familiar and indispensable but also notoriously hard to bring into focus. Despite the success of a number of mathematical models in allowing us to quantify information and information flow, the central concept remains tantalisingly out of reach.