information theory

Definition

Basic data communication theory that applies to the technical processes of encoding a signal for transmission, and provides a statistical description of the message produced by the code. It defines information as choice or entropy and treats the 'meaning' of a message (in the human sense) as irrelevant. Proposed together by the US mathematicians Claude Shannon (1916-2001) and Warren Weaver (1894-1978) in 1949, it focuses on how to transmit data most efficiently and economically, and to detect errors in its transmission and reception.