An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise: Amazon.ca: John R. Pierce: Books

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Covers encoding and binary digits, entropy, language and meaning, efficient encoding and the noisy channel, and explores ways in which information theory relates to physics, cybernetics, psychology, and art. "Uncommonly good...the most satisfying discussion to be found." — Scientific American. 1980 edition.

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Best Beginners Book EVER! Pierce is Great., Oct 25 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise (Paperback)

First off, I am a very tough grade. I never give more than 3 stars unless a book is exceptional. This book is THE FINEST introductory book every written on information theory!! ... (Lemme explain briefly: In the golden era of information theory, there were many people who sought to "jump on the information theory bandwagon". In fact Claude Shannon actually wrote a brief paper about that. You had all kinds of people trying to apply information theory to the fields of investments and even psychology, ad nauseum. This book has chapters that deal with that... With respect to Pierce, it's junk bogus science... and he really shouldn't have sunk to that level.... even thought there continue to be many Thesis and Dissertations today which still try to use information theory to justify economics and group psychology... Believe that stuff if it makes you happy).

This book is practical, it get's straight to the point and tells you what information theory can actually (and is actually) used for. Alot of information theory books don't
have any practical value whatsoever (Reza, Ash, Khinchin) as they seem to be written more by mathemeticians than scientists/engineers... Pierce has written several books in the golden era, and he is one of the very best authors. His insight, knowledge and clarity of writing are almost unparalleled by no other author. Only Claude Shannon, Bernard Sklar and James Massey rival John Pierce in exceptionally simple writing style.

The book has very few mathematical equations. The ones he presents are so simple it's basic middle school mathematics. In lieiu of math equations, Pierce explains information theory in plain english. If you know nothing whatsoever about information theory... this is the book I would highly recommend first.... ...

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5.0 out of 5 stars An Absolute Gem, Oct 11 2002

By

Clark M. Neily (Allston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise (Paperback)

Claude Shannon died last year, and it's really disgraceful that his name is not a household word in the manner of Einstein and Newton. He really WAS the Isaac Newton of communications theory, and his master's thesis on Boolean logic applied to circuits is probably the most cited ever.

This is the ONLY book of which I am aware which attempts to present Shannon's results to the educated lay reader, and Pierce does a crackerjack job of it. Notwithstanding, this is not a book for the casual reader. The ideas underlying the theory are inherently subtle and mathematical, although there are numerous practical manifestations of them in nature, and in human "information transmission" behavior. On the other hand, this is a work which repays all effort invested in its mastery many times over.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Worth a Careful Reading, Sep 13 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise (Paperback)

Pierce is an accomplished scientist/engineer, and was influential in the development of information theory/signal processing. This book has some mathematics, but lays a solid qualitative foundation for understanding the material. This book is a classic, good for computer engineers/scientists (as is his book Signals: The Science of Telecommunications). The presentation is accessible, and first hand accounts of important discoveries motivates a real appreciation for Pierce's contributions.

However, the clarity of the presentation tends to obscure just how profound and deep the thinking involved really is. During the first reading, Pierce's insights made the material seem almost obvious. Later I would get doubts that such straightforward approaches could be correct, and then would think about the correctness of his assertions. This is why this is a great book, because it focuses on important stuff, and doesn't shy away from deep topics. This is a great book for those interested in the basis of information theory, on a side note Shannon's original papers are also quite readable.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Good intro but dated
Good intro but dated, August 7, 2007
By Glenn L. E. May (Islington, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

The update of this book should have been updated. Read more

Published on Aug 7 2007 by Glenn L. E. May

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the place to start
Although old this is still the best book to learn the core ideas of this subject, especially what information "entropy" really means. Read more

Published on Nov 14 2000 by Ken Braithwaite