Seeing Patterns in Data
I'm reading Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. It is sort of a thriller about secret codes and stuff, taking place both in WWII and today. Anyway, one of the recurring themes is about finding patterns in apparent randomness. *Information* is essentially the stuff that is different within a volume of data. If I say AAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAA, there isn't a whole lot of information. It is a bunch of As and a B. The B is what sticks out, of course. There is no information if everything is the same all the time, or if it is just the same repetitive pattern. Information is conveyed when something different takes place, which somebody can make sense out of.
Through intelligent analysis one might find patterns of information where the untrained eye wouldn't expect or notice any. An example from the book: a secret installation that is working on breaking codes, using a certain kind of machines, has hired mainly women who are taller than the norm, because of the way the machines are constructed, as they need to be able to reach to the top of them to change the paper. Somebody who had access to personnel records and were analyzing them might notice the height variance. That is information. It points to a deeper pattern. A smart intelligence person would notice that variation and would investigate it further to find out what it meant.