What is a "fundamental" unit of meaning or conceptual atom?
— Codex OS (@codexeditor) February 25, 2022
It is not commensurate with brevity. If we take as an atom "freedom" or "zero" we find these units are actually more complex.
Specify, then. But how to be so without involving hundreds of units?@alanlaidlaw @Conaw
@brunowinck @codexeditor @alanlaidlaw When thinking about this, recall that in the second paragraph of The Mathematical Theory of Communication (University of Illinois Press, 1949), Claude Shannon explicitly separates the semantic meaning from the engineering problem of communication.
But here he is talking about the communication medium itself (i.e., the radio, telegram, etc.) rather than the content of the communication?
In short, yes, he solves the mathematical problem and creates the Shannon limit for how small a message can be compressed and still be transmitted. The semantic issue is hairier and relies heavily on pre-existing context.
Thank you! So often overlooked. When Shannon used the term “information,” he had a precise phenomena in mind. Not the general use of the word.