In the Beginning was Information

Some quotations concerning this aspect of information are: FrenchPresident Charles de Gaulle (1890 – 1970): “The ten commandmentsare so concise and plainly intelligible because they were compiledwithout first having a commission of inquiry.” Another philosophersaid: “There are about 35 million laws on earth to validate the tencommandments.” A certain representative in the American Congressconcluded: “The Lord’s prayer consists of 56 words, and the tencommandments comprise 297 words. The declaration of independencecontains 300 words, but the recently published ordinance aboutthe price of coal comprises no fewer than 26,911 words.”Figure 12: The five aspects of information.A complete characterisation of the information concept requires all fiveaspects statistics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and apobetics, which areessential for both the sender and the recipient. Information originates as alanguage; it is first formulated, and then transmitted or stored. An agreeduponalphabet comprising individual symbols (code), is used to composewords. Then the (meaningful) words are arranged in sentences according tothe rules of the relevant grammar (syntax), to convey the intended meaning(semantics). It is obvious that the information concept also includes theexpected/implemented action (pragmatics), and the intended/achieved purpose(apobetics).56