Examines the historical relations between sonic noise and informational noise
A comprehensive and detailed analysis of noise and its conceptual transformation to an informational concept
Offers interdisciplinarity and conveys the interconnectedness of episodes in history of science and technology
Integrates the history of sensory perceptions with the development of modern technosciences
Historicizes a central issue underlying data science, artificial intelligence, and the computational form of life
Transforming Noise examines the historical origin of the attempts to understand, control, and use noise in modern times. The book sheds light on the interactions between physics, mathematics, mechanical technology, electrical engineering, and information and data sciences in the twentieth century.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Discordance and nuisance
3. Materializing cacophony: surface noise on phonographic records
4. Measuring noise: from ear-balance to self-registration
5. Brownian motion and the origin of stochastic processes
6. Electronic noise in telecommunications
7. Dynamics of Brownian motion
8. Spectrum of random noise
9. A mathematical foundation of fluctuations
10. Noise in radar detection
11. Filtering noise for antiaircraft gunfire control
12. Information, cryptography, and noise
13. Spread-spectrum communication
14. Conclusion
9780198887768
A History of Its Science and Technology from Disturbing Sounds to Informational Errors, 1900-1955