Moscow, Russia

Computer and Information Sciences

Компьютерные и информационные науки

Table of contents

⇑Computer and Information Sciences at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (PhysTech)

Language: Russian Studies in Russian
Subject area: computer science
University website: mipt.ru/english/

⇑Definitions and quotes

Computer
A computer is a device that can be instructed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically via computer programming. Modern computers have the ability to follow generalized sets of operations, called programs. These programs enable computers to perform an extremely wide range of tasks.
Information
Information is any entity or form that provides the answer to a question of some kind or resolves uncertainty. It is thus related to data and knowledge, as data represents values attributed to parameters, and knowledge signifies understanding of real things or abstract concepts. As it regards data, the information's existence is not necessarily coupled to an observer (it exists beyond an event horizon, for example), while in the case of knowledge, the information requires a cognitive observer.
Information
When action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable, sleep.
Ursula K. Le Guin (b. 1929), American Science Fiction author. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ch. 3 (1969).
Information
Wisdom is dead. Long live information.
Mason Cooley (1927-2002), American academic and aphorist. City Aphorisms (1984).
Information
Information smacks of safe neutrality; it is simple, helpful heaping of unassailable facts. In that innocent guise, its the perfect starting point for a technocratic political agenda that wants as little exposure for its objectives as possible. After all, what can anyone say against information?
Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information: The folklore of computers and the true art of thinking, 1968, p. 19.
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