Meet the Authors Series: History and Information

Description

Assumptions that information is everywhere, and that everything has a history can be hard to deny.  Yet, ubiquitous though both seem, bringing information and history together can be curiously challenging.  This talk will explore what the challenges may reveal about information by drawing on the experience of putting together both an undergraduate course and an edited volume around the topic of "history of information."  The "companion," Princeton University Press's Information: A Historical Companion, attempts a novel perspective by addressing the concept of information through the lens of history and history through the lens of information, hoping to offer new insight into both.  The talk will reflect in particular on the different ways in which scholarship addresses the concept of "information," both over time and across disciplines, the latter often leading to rather overconfident views of interdisciplinarity, which will be brought into question in this talk.