An Introduction to Information Theory

Takeaway:

We see/hear/talk about “Information” in many contexts. In the last two decades or so, one can also go and make a career in the field of “Information” technology. But what is “Information” ? If someone talks about a certain subject for 10 minutes in English and 10 minutes in French, Is the “Information” same in both the instances?. Can we quantify the two instances in someway ? This book explains Claude Shannon’s remarkable achievement of measuring “Information” in terms of probabilities. Almost 50 years ago, Shannon laid out a mathematical framework and it was an open challenge for engineers to develop devices and technologies that Shannon proved as a “mathematical certainty”. This book distils the main ideas that go in to quantifying information with very little math and hence makes it accessible to a wider audience. A must read if you are curious about knowing a bit about “Information” which has become a part of every day’s vocabulary.