the information which they called intelligence at the time it was a slippery concept I wanted to try

to find a way to treat information like a physical thing like energy that you that you could measure

[Music]

what I realized was to measure information you have to look at it without regard to meaning

that upset a lot of people that content is irrelevant [Music]

point of sending a message is to remove uncertainty something you didn't know

now you know do you have a coin Michelle a coin hey yes coin I'd

get up to get one myself but I know just tell me to sit back down um yes

heads or tails Tails heads a coin toss is an example of the simplest form of information

to communicate binary choice true or false heads or tails a one or a zero a bit is your coin legal

sorry your car is not counterfeit is it um not that I know of so if I toss it a hundred times

each time I toss it there's an equal probability that it's a head or a tail I'd need a hundred bits

of information one for each task to communicate the results now if it turns out you're some sort

of a calm woman and you thought it might be fun to pull the wool over some gullible Old Man's eyes

heads right its heads on both sides yeah I didn't need any information from you to

know the results if something's completely predictable there's zero information but if

on the other hand if something's completely random you need information about everything

contains more information than great literature