Information Concepts

Information is essential to all human activity, and information in electronic form both amplifies and augments human information interactions. This lecture surveys some of the different classical meanings of information, focuses on the ways that electronic technologies are affecting how we think about these senses of information, and introduces an emerging sense of information that has implications for how we work, play, and interact with others. The evolutions of computers and electronic networks and people"s uses and adaptations of these tools manifesting a dynamic space called cyberspace. Our traces of activity in cyberspace give rise to a new sense of information as instantaneous identity states that I term proflection of self. Proflections of self influence how others act toward us. Four classical senses of information are described as context for this new form of information. The four senses selected for inclusion here are the following: thought and memory, communication...