Value of information

30/10/201728/09/2021Other topics

Have you ever thought about information?

The word information is used at various times. Both TV news and online articles are information. Word-of-mouth is also information, and conversations with friends are also information. It can be said that the world of the Internet, or the virtual world, is made up of information .

Of course, what makes the world of the net is the terminals that display information such as smartphones and personal computers in your hands, the servers on the net that send out information, and the wired and wireless that connect them. It is a hardware device such as a line .

But these hardware devices are tools for handling information to show, store, and communicate information, aren’t they? It is a problem if the tools do not move accurately and comfortably according to their purpose, but the most important thing is the information that flows there . Therefore, I think it is not so wrong to say that the world of the Internet is made up of information.

What is information? , How do you organize it?

By the way, there are various kinds of information . Reliable information, stinking information, clearly wrong information, important information, irrelevant information, information you know, information you do not know. Even if you try to classify it, it seems that it will diverge ramblingly.

It’s okay to diverge, but well, I want to sort out a slightly chaotic world of information. The value of the information Let’s organize a little from the perspective of.　It seems that you can understand valuable information and non-value information.

Information that is valuable to me (or you) is important information to me (or you), and I want it to be reliable information because I am in trouble if I make a mistake. Information that is of no value to me (or you) doesn’t really bother me, even if it’s wrong.

Valuable information is important, but what is the value of information?

In, the value of the information I will What? The more I think about it, the less I understand it, but this is the definition of the value of the information that Father Gutara often uses.

•  Information is something that influences people’s judgment
•  The value of information is determined in conjunction with the value of the judgment of the person who influences the information.

I don’t really understand this either, is it worth the judgment of a person in the first place ?

Consider the value of weather forecasts as an example

For example, consider the value of information-related decisions such as weather forecasts when you leave home on a rainy morning . You of how we put or take an umbrella decision does not go and not to. If it doesn’t rain with an umbrella, I don’t like it because I have to carry an obstructive umbrella for a day.　

On the other hand, if it rains without taking an umbrella, you will get wet and go home, so I don’t like this either. I try to know the information called weather forecast so that unpleasant things do not happen as much as possible.

The weather forecast at this time is information for you as it affects the decision whether to bring an umbrella . And for you, the value of this weather forecast information is linked to the value you get as a result of your judgment , whether you don’t get wet in the rain or carry an umbrella that’s just annoying . ..

In other words, the weather forecast is just data like “the probability that it will rain today where you go is XX%" . But only when that data influences your decision whether to bring an umbrella , this weather forecast data becomes information for you.　

But this weather forecast data is not information, but just data, as it has nothing to do with your friends on the other side of the globe, far from you.

The value of information is maximized during the war

Let’s assume a slightly more extreme case to consider the value of information. Suppose that two countries, A and B, are in a state of war across the border. Let’s say you have one cruise missile as a way to attack each other. Let’s say that with this cruise missile, the country that destroyed an important facility at the other’s military base, such as the Command Headquarters, today can win the war.　

As long as you know the exact location of the command headquarters, you can set the position on the cruise missile and launch it, and you will win your own country. However, assuming that the other country will make such an attack, the position of the command headquarters of the home country is carefully hidden. The location of the command headquarters is hidden by various means, such as creating a dummy command headquarters building or moving the command headquarters to another building every day.

Such a situation is the same for both country A and country B. How valuable is the information “ the current position of the command headquarters of the partner country " in such a war situation ? With this information, you can win this war. The “judgment" of where to set the attack target position for the cruise missile determines the outcome of the war. Whether you can become the first-winning country or the defeated country is the value related to this “judgment", and determines the value of the information “the current position of the command headquarters of the partner country" .

Since “the current position of the command headquarters of the partner country" is of great value, both countries A and B regularly fly military satellites, monitor various broadcast radio waves and Internet communications, and enormous costs. It seems that you are making an effort to grasp the “current position of the command headquarters of the partner country". Living in peace makes it difficult to see, but unfortunately this is part of the current international situation.

Information is valuable

I 've covered weather forecasts, wartime attack targets, and extreme examples, but when you review all the information in terms of the value of that information , you can see its importance to you. When you make a decision, it is the information that is valuable to you that influences that decision. And the magnitude of the tangible and intangible value you receive from that judgment is linked to the value of that information. You should pay attention to high-value information and let low-value information flow.

The world today is full of information like never before . From now until just a little while ago, the information that individuals come in contact with has not been so flooded. In an era when there was no source of information such as family and friends with whom I was in direct contact, a place where information was collected fixedly in the area such as a library, and mass media such as TV / radio and newspapers, information was provided in various places. Was filtered, and the information that individuals interacted with was quite limited.

However, now that individuals are free to connect directly to the world’s sources of information via the Internet, all information , whether filtered or unfiltered, is in the hands of individuals . Don’t be swallowed up by a flood of miscellaneous information when swimming in the ocean of this information. ・I think it’s worth knowing that you look at information from the perspective of value .

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