Information Theory

How much information is contained in a book?

Seems like a simple question.  A computer scientist might count the number of bits describing the words in the book.  Okay, that's one measure, but if you just laid all those binary digits out in a line, would it mean anything to anyone?  What if you fed them into a computer?  Do the words mean anything, carry any information at all, if there is no human at the other end to interpret them.

What is a unit of information?  Is it a bit?  That's just a number.  It is just a symbol.

No... information is the thought.  Information does not exist outside the human sphere, so there is no such thing as information without the human at the other end to interpret the symbols representing information.  This is where Artificial Intelligence runs up against a wall.  Feed all the symbols you want into a computer, you still need a human brain in there somewhere to translate those symbols into information.

So what is it about the mind that enables us to translate symbols into information?  What is information?

Information is an analog pattern.  The world makes an imprint on the brain.  Somehow, as information is fed into the brain, it resonates with the imprints and changes those imprints in indelible ways.  Constantly.  The only way to become smart, to have know more, is to experience it.

And if you want to create a brain that contains intrinsic information, you have to somehow create a system that allows the world to make an imprint and constantly refreshes that imprint by comparing new information to old imprints to modify or reinforce.