The process of verbalization of one’s feelings, impressions, sensations, etc., both oral and written, is actually the act of encoding them. For instance, if we write (or say) “Go outside. It is nice out,” we are conveying data. We will not know how nice it is outside until we actually step out, but we also need to understand English and act quickly enough because conditions outside are mutable; in other words, data and information have a certain lifespan. Data becomes information at the moment the recipient comprehends it.

Data can be encoded in various ways, and the resulting data will differ from the original input.

a) Go outside. It is nice out.

b) 01000111 01101111 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00101110 00100000

c) –. — / — ..- – … .. -.. . .-.-.- / .. – / .. … / -. .. -.-. . / — ..- – .-.-.-

Despite the identical content of the information (a recommendation to go out in good weather), the data recorded here is different: a) English, b) ASCII – American binary code, c) Morse code. What makes it different? (Next page)