Information and

Communication
Mathematical Models

Vasil Penchev
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences:
Institute for the Study of Societies of
Knowledge
vasildinev@gmail.com

Thursday, October 8th, 18:15 19:00

Vilnius university: Faculty of Philosophy
Models of Communication:
Theoretical and Philosophical Approaches
Vilnius, 8-10 October 2015

A mathematical theory of
communication
The concept and quantity of information are
introduced by Shannon (1948) as a way and
mathematical method for communication to
be formalized as transmission and relation
of messages
The communication is formalized as
transmitting messages in channels
A general quantity of information measured
in bits is introduced to describe
mathematical both message and
communication

About Shannons
information

It is inverse to thermodynamic entropy

It depends both on the content and
length of message as both are
represented as mathematical functions
This implies that the content of
communication is indirectly postulated as
a stage or result of calculation to be
representable as any mathematical
function
Correspondingly, the length of message is
the number of digits necessary for that

Noise and information in

Shannon
Anything, which is not information, in
Shannons mathematical theory of
communication, is noise:
Thus noise means both:
- any change of information due to
internal influence or the material
realization of communication
- any additional component of
communication, which is not (or cannot
be) reduced to information

The philosophical formula of Shannons

mathematical theory of communication

ommunication = Informatio
A comment: Information is the
mathematical quantity, which can
represented all stages of
communication as an ideal process of
calculation realizable in technical

Wieners cybernetics
Wiener (1948), his colleague in MIT, used an
analogical approach to define cybernetics as
"the scientific study of control and
communication in the animal and the machine
In fact, this is a rather philosophical
generalization of Shannons approach for the
mathematization of communication:

Shannon
Communication
Machine

Wiener
Control &
Communication
Animal & Machine

What information in Wiener

is

So, information was understood as:

The matter of control and
communication
Structured in units such as messages
Allowing of mathematical models
general to the human being, the animal,
the machine and even to any physical,
chemical, and biological systems
Entropy as the quantity of disorder is
opposite to that of information

The philosophical formula of Wieners

cybernetics

Control
= Information
Communication
A comment: Information is the mathematical
quantity, which can represented all stages of
communication and control as a process of
calculation realizable in technical devices,
animals and even any systems

Habermass Theory of
communicative action
Habermas (1981) introduced the model of
communicative rationality based on
communicative action
The information approach to communication
reduces it to transmitting rational messages
and thus any message to some ordering or
logic of what is communicated:
The idea and corresponding ideal of
communication is the collaboration for
ordering nature, society, and the world in a
rational way relevant to all communicators

The philosophical formula of Habermass

theory of communicative action

Communication = Action
A comment: Communicative action
suggests another kind of rationality,
rationality in society (or social rationality).
It is different from that rationality directed
to nature for achieving human aims and
objectivities

Habermass philosophical
background
Though different, rationality in society and
rationality to nature are similar anyway both
being forms of rationality:
Rationality to nature is an infinite
continuation of the finite human mind
Rationality in society is an discrete leap
between two or more finite human minds
(me ... others)
Thus, infinite continuation to nature should
be similar to discrete leap within the finite of
society (intersubective transcendentalism)

Information vs communication in
Habermas
One and the same message can be and usually is
interpreted rather differently by separate human
beings
Nevertheless, it has an invariant base shared by
all or many enough: This is the information of the
message
It is not formal and yet less mathematical
Information is not identical to communication
Communication suggests discontinuity of
information: Though information is one and the
same, it is shared by different members of
society

Communicative vs technical action

I. Technical action
Technical action embodies certain
information being an intention or
plan in a material of nature creating
an artefact such as a technical
device, etc
Thus it continues the plan in a
material object
Action is what leaps from the ideal
into the material and links them over
the gap of infinity

Communicative vs technical action

II. Communicative action
Communicative action does not consider the
Other as an object of nature, in whom to
embody the message
It is directed to mutual understanding, in
which it will reveal its information depending
on that mutual understanding but
independent of different interpretations
Its information is impossible without
understanding and even does not exist before
understanding
Thus information exists only in a society

Communicative as technical
action
Though being so different, information in
Shannon and Wiener and it in Habermas
share a general and formal structure:
This is the unit of information, a bit in
Shannon and Wiener, which is the
elementary choice between two equally
probable alternatives
This is the elementary communicative
action sharing one and the same
information in two individuals in the
process of understanding

Technical as communicative
action

One can think of any bit of information as a

hidden communicative action preliminary
accomplished in a society
Those bits of information are what are
further embodied in the piece of nature for
it to be modeled according to human
intentions and plans
Thus communicative action is embodied in
information being social understanding and
concordance and only then that
information is embodied in nature by
technical action in turn

A generalized formula of
information and action

Comment: the formula

elucidates that
information and
action incl. physical
action pass from each
to other
Therefore they should
share a common and
thus general
philosophical ground

ommunicative
action
Information
Technical
action

Production
of information
in society

Utilization
of information
in technics

Understanding

A cell of memory

Com. 1

Com. 2

Communicative
action

Choice

1
Technical
action

Alternative 1 Alternative 2

The ground of
communication

That ground might be choice and ordering

Thus any communicator is representative
and represented by its participation in
common ordering
Ordering is a result of choice
Information elaborated by understanding
and communicative action is the quantity
of choices and thus ability of ordering
The essence of technical action is the
ordering in a certain pattern

Rational communication
However the model of rational
communication interchanging information
whether reduced to a mathematical formula
or a result of understanding in a society is
unable to represent and even imagine many
other sides of communication as an aim and
objectivity by itself
All other possible aspects of the messages
and communication are either ignored or
reduced to some obstacle or noise in the
process of communication and ordering

Mathematics
The same approach of rational communication
and information is relevant even to
mathematics and its foundation:
Peano arithmetic, which is usually accepted as
the ultimate element of mathematics is easily
to be underlain by processes of information
and calculation such as in a Turing machine
Even the completeness of the so generalized
arithmetic can be proved using two or more
Turing machines (a quantum computer)
That completeness corresponds to Gentzens
or intuitionistic approaches for completeness

Choice as the base of rationality

and mathematics
Then the quantity of information and
thus the corresponding ideal of rational
communication underlie mathematics
by means of the concept of choice
Indeed the axiom of choice in
mathematics allows of any even infinite
or coherent class to be enumerated and
thus reduced to a single Peano
arithmetic
Furthermore it allows a Peano arithmetic
to be chosen between two independent

Information as the quantity of

choices
Information is interpreted formally as the
quantity of elementary choices such as:
Bits (in the case of finite messages, series or
sets): a bit is an elementary choice between
two equally probable alternatives; or
Qubits, i.e. quantum bits (in the case of
infinite ones): a qubit is that generalization of
a bit referring to an elementary choice among
an infinite set of alternatives
A qubit (after Kolmogorovs algorithmic
definition of information) is equivalent to a
transfinite bit, i.e. to an elementary choice
between two independent Peano arithmetic

After choice, or utilizing information

The ideal (and result) is well-ordering
guaranteed by a relevant axiom or principle
such as the axiom of choice or the wellordering principle (theorem) equivalent to
each other
The essence of technical action is
implementation of a certain pattern equivalent
to a series of choices, i.e. information
However that model for technical use is
elaborated before that by communicative
action in society, i.e. by the production of
information in understanding

The inherent, but hidden

link
One can deduce an inherent link between
the mathematical models of communication,
the concept of and quantity of information
and Habermass communicative rationality
All those divide disjunctively the state before
or after choice therefore postulating the
choice itself
Then rationality can be separated from
irrationality entirely within the choice and its
mechanism, and rationality accepted the
choice as granted somehow beginning after
it

Production
of information
The black
in society
box
Communicative
of choice:
action
The ground of
Information
both rational
communicati
Technical
on and
action
information
Utilization
of information
in technics

Rational communication and

information in European tradition
All those are grounded on rational and
empirical tradition in philosophy and
especially in European philosophy
There exists:
The practice of separating rationality
from irrationality disjunctively
Representing irrationality as some
black box, e.g. that of choice
Postulating that black box as a an
initial element of rationality

On that background
It tends to all different from the
rational and ordered to be
generalized and ignored as the
irrational
Then, the irrational sides of
communication can be studied only
as obstacles and informational
noise or as far they admit some
rationalization by means of any more
or less relevant model preferably

Conclusions:
Shannons mathematical theory of
communication,
Wieners cybernetics, and even
Habermass theory of communicative
action
share the European approach of
rationality to communication
Its essence consists in dividing the
rational from the irrational, and then
bracketing the latter as a black box
and initial element for rationality

Literature
I. Habermass Theory of communicative action
1. Habermas, J. 1984-1987 The theory of
communicative action. Vol. 1:Reason and the
rationalization of society; Vol. 2: Lifeworld and
system : a critique of functionalist reason,
Boston: Beacon Press.
2. Habermas, J. 2001 On the pragmatics of
social interaction: preliminary studies in the
theory of communicative action, Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press.
3. Honneth, A., H. Joas (eds.) 1991
Communicative action: essays on Jurgen
Habermas's The theory of communicative
action, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Literature:
II. Information theory and cybernetics
1. Wiener, N. 1948 Cybernetics or control
and communication in the animal and the
machine, New York: J. Wiley: The Technology
Press.
2. Shannon, C. 1948 A mathematical theory
of communication, Bell System technical
journal, 27(3): 379423; 27(4): 623656.
3. Kolmogorov, A. 1968 Three approaches
to the quantitative definition of information,
International Journal of Computer
Mathematics, 2(1-4): 157-168.

Dkojame!
Thank you for your attention!