16.461 confirmation of likely words?

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 02:01:51 EST

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 461.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                       www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                         Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu

             Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2003 06:56:52 +0000
             From: Matt Kirschenbaum <mk235@umail.umd.edu>
             Subject: umberto eco on information

    I'm trying to track down a discussion by Umberto Eco where he defines
    information as something like (I'm paraphrasing) the confirmation of
    unlikely facts. For example, if I'm told by a landlord that an apartment
    will cost $550 to rent, that's _information_ because it's unlikely that
    the apartment would have cost $550 (as opposed to $449 or $551 or $448
    or $552, etc.)

    Can anyone help? Thanks, Matt

    Matthew G. Kirschenbaum_____________________________
    _______________________http://www.glue.umd.edu/~mgk/



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