60 years "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" − − − − Towards a "Fuzzy Information Theory"
Rudolf Seising · European Society for Fuzzy Logic and Technology Conference · 2009
Abstract —When 60 years ago Shannon established “A Mathemat-ical Theory of Communication” nobody could know the consequen-ces for science and technology in the second half of the century. Shannon published his article in two parts in the July and October 1948 editions of the Bell System Technical Journal . However, it is very probable that this article wouldn’t have become famous without the help of Weaver, whose popular text “The Mathematics of commu-nication” re-interpreted Shannon’s work for broader scientific audi-ences. Weaver’s “preface” and Shannon’s article were published together in the book The Mathematical Theory of Communication (1949) that represents the beginning of the then so-called “Informa-tion theory”. However, in his “introduction” Weaver went over and above Shannon´s mathematical theory mentioning not only the tech-nical but also the semantic and influential problems of communi-cation. This classification is very similar to the foundations of the Theory of Signs (1938) that was established by Morris. This paper deals with the connectivity between this Information theory and the Theory of Fuzzy sets and systems that appeared in the first half of the 1950s.Then the paper focuses to the non-technical but philosophical aspects of information theory and it advocates a fuzzy information theory that has to be appropriate to cover the concept of information – particularly with regard to the philosophical aspects.