- The word data comes from the latin word “datum”.
- A datum is something, like a stick, or a number, which can be given from one to another.
- Data is the plural of datum.
- As An Example:
- Take the data 4029:
- I just gave you this data.
- You can copy that.
- Share it.
- You can alter it.
- Delete it.
- Split it.
- Hide it.
- You do this to the data: 9204
- Data has no context.
- It has no meaning.
- It is only when it has context that data then becomes something with meaning.
- In 3.1, 4029 might be:
- My childhood phone number.
- An encoding for a three letter word.
- Part of a coordinate to a sub-marine base in a spy-movie.
- The last four contiguous numbers of my driving licence.
- It could have no meaning to me and meaning to you.
- What that meaning is, is the information.
- It could be two of your winning lottery numbers.
- It could have meaning in that you and I might share an exceptional coincidental void of connections to this number.
- Data has less value than information.
- All information is data.
- All data is not information.
- Data exists when there is a change of state of a representing/recording medium.
- Questions:
- Is 4029 the same data as 111110111101?
- It is the same number.
- As is FBD.
- Could a change in the locks and junctions in a canal system represent numbers?
- Is this identical to silicone logic gates?
- Imagine the following thought experiment :
- Consider:
- At time T1 You have a packet of data that can be divided up as: ABCD.
- It could be four bytes, or four yadabytes, it doesn’t matter.
- At T2 you split the packet into AB and CD.
- And then at T3 you join the packet back together again to make ABCD.
- The composite question is: Where, How and Why does the information ABCD exist between T1 and T2 and T3?
- Is truly random noise information?