The Science and Engineering of Information

Abstract

This chapter discusses three clusters of concern or theories regarding information science and engineering: (1) a theory of information, (2) a theory of the information process, and (3) a theory of information systems. In discussing these three concerns of the discipline, the use of a classification—a semiotic one, concerned with relations at the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic levels is done. The theory of information is concerned with the nature and properties of signs and symbols. The major elements of this theory may be said to be information representation, information relations, information measure, and information structure. The theory of information is also a foundation of the second structural level of information science, the theory of the information process. This theory is concerned with the generation, transmission, transformation, storage, and control of the abstracted content of the fluxes or potentials of mass and energy within physical systems that change in time. The third level of information science and engineering is the theory of information systems. At the syntactical level, the theory of information systems appears to be identical with or closely related to the theory of general systems.