The Information - James Gleick [259]
transmission of, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3
memory
aids in oral literature
computer, cost of
evolution of information technology and, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3
in machine functions
in maze-navigating machine, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
meme strategies
psychology research on, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4
quantum erasure of
writing and, 2.1, 2.2
Menabrea, Luigi
Mencken, H. L., 3.1, 11.1
Mendel, Gregor
Mercury: or the Secret and Swift Messenger (Wilkins)
Merlin, John
Mermin, David, 13.1n, 13.2
Merrill, James
messenger RNA, 11.1, 13.1
meta-language
Metalogicon
metamathematics, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 10.1, 12.1
metaphor
“Method of Expressing by Signs the Action of Machinery, On a” (Babbage), 4.1, 4.2
Metropolis, Nicholas
microfilm
microstates, 9.1, 9.2
Middleton, Thomas
Milbanke, Anna Isabella
Milgram, Stanley
Miller, George, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Miller, Jonathan, 2.1, 2.2
Million Random Digits, A, 12.1, 12.2
Milton, John, 3.1, 11.1
Mingjia (School of Names)
Minsky, Marvin
Miot de Melito, Count n
Mitchell, David
mondegreens, 3.1, 3.2
Monod, Jacques
Monte Carlo simulations, 11.1, 12.1
Moore, Francis
Moore, Gordon
Morse, Samuel F. B., 1.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
Morse code, prl.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 5.1, 6.1, 11.1, 12.1
mortality tables, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
Mulcaster, Richard
multiplexed signals
Mumford, Lewis
Munch, Edvard
Murray, James, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6
music, 10.1, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
Nagel, Ernest
naming, 2.1, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6
Napier, John, 4.1, 4.2
Napoleon Bonaparte, 5.1, 5.2
National Defense Research Committee
natural history, 14.1, 14.2
natural philosophy, prl.1, prl.2, 3.1
natural selection, 5.1, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 11.1; see also evolution
Nature, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, epl.1
Nautical Almanac, 4.1, 4.2
navigation, number tables for, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
needle telegraphy, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6
networks
applications of Shannon’s theories, 8.1, 8.2
barbed-wire telephone
biological analogies for electrical
cloud processing
clustering in
collective judgment and behavior enabled by, epl.1, epl.2
emergence of global consciousness, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
English poetry
global information in, epl.1, epl.2
science of
small-world, epl.1, epl.2
spread of memes through
telegraphic, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.1
telephone, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4
see also cyberspace; Internet
Neugebauer, Otto
neurophysiology
analog versus digital descriptions of, 8.1, 8.2
concept of human global organism, epl.1, epl.2, epl.3
feedback systems in, 8.1, 8.2
human–computer comparison, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
metaphors for electrical systems
neurosis
New Logic, 6.1, 6.2
Newman, James R.
Newton, Isaac, prl.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 6.1, 9.1, 11.1, 12.1, 14.1, 14.2, 14.3
noise
in biological systems
coded messages as, 7.1, 7.2
error correction to overcome, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1
limits of information transmission, 8.1, 8.2
in modeling of communication systems, 6.1, 7.1
noisy coding theorem
predictability
problems of telephony, prl.1, prl.2, 6.1, 6.2, 7.1
quantification of
scientific study of, 6.1, 6.2
source of, 6.1, 7.1
as subject of psychology research, 8.1, 8.2
Wiener’s studies of, 8.1, 8.2
Nollet, Abbé Jean-Antoine
noosphere
Notions sur la machine analytique (Menabrea)
nucleic acid, 10.1, 10.2; see also deoxyribonucleic acid, 10.1
nucleotides, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4
numbers
computability question, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5
concept of normality in, 12.1, 12.2
earliest written, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3
information in, 12.1, 12.2
interesting, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4
meaning of
printed tables of, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4
products of Babbage’s work with, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
table of differences, 4.1, 4.2
as universal language, 6.1, 6.2
see also mathematics
Nyquist, Harry, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.1
observer effects on subject of observation, 7.1, 13.1, 13.2,