Mathias Winther Madsen
Week 1, August 3-7, 2020
Abstract:
Information theory is a branch of probability theory that investigates the fundamental limits on our ability to communicate reliably. By quantifying the concepts of uncertainty and information in a mathematically meaningful way, it allows us to formulate precise results about the amount of information we can hope to transmit in the presence of noise, and evaluate whether a code achieves this maximal efficiency. These results have concrete applications for the design of communication systems, but also profound consequences for linguistics and epistemology.