Ancient Information Theory (Semaphores & signal fires)

History of the telegraph from the signal fire to 18th Century semaphore lines. We visit ideas of Polybius, Aeneas Tactius, Sushruta, Francis Bacon, Robert Hooke and others.
References:
Communications: An International History of the Formative Years (Burns)
Understanding Media (McLuhan)
The Mathematical Theory of Communication (Shannon)
The Histories (Polybius)
translation link: penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E...)

[@ArtOfTheProblem]

Link to series playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLbg3ZX2pWlgKDVFNwn9B63UhYJVIerzHL

[@Crux161]

I hear you about the flu, I was stricken with it myself over the holidays. Glad you're feeling better again, I don't know what I'd do without your channel, so full of good stuffs! :D

[@tim40gabby25]

They missed a trick with the torches.. After 2 torches invite a signalbto indicate readiness, from the location of those initial torches 2 spaced groups of 5 regularly spaced torches would allow 32 x 32 different ideas if binary was employed. 11010 01011 is signal 25x11 = 275 ie [whatever was agreed previously] Wonder why it wasn't used?

[@DenysLazarenko]

Looking forward to seeing the next videos! Great job, guys!

[@Crux161]

Thiis is leading into telegraphs, with the invention the electromagnet in 1824... very cool! Can't wait to see more :D

[@qwerty-mz8is]

this is super! My teacher went thru the diffie hellman key exchange today. But no one thought it was cool... I soo wanted to show your video instead so they would understand the genius behind it. Even thou I seen you video a bunch of times, even i had a hard time following that he was talking about the same thing when he just showed it in a strict mathematical form

[@ArtOfTheProblem]

+Nils Eriksson How did it go, which video did you show? Thanks for feedback!

[@qwerty-mz8is]

I sent the link to them via facebook. And they are looking at them right now :) Its a real eye opener. I have a hard time finding out which playlist i should use thou. The male videos dont have a playlist it seems. and on khan academy the coldwar stuff is cut. thank you for your awesome work !

[@ArtOfTheProblem]

Cool! All videos you are looking for are on khan academy but they are split into two lessons: "ancient crypto" and "modern crypto" (www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/cryptography/modern-crypt/v/the-fundamental-theorem-of-arithmetic-1) I've also updated this playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLbg3ZX2pWlgLoapF5VvM_8h5OR-XW9pbr

[@Eta_Carinae__]

On the spice question: it might also be important to discuss how much spice one can add to affect taste. Given it's a continuous input, there should be an infinite amount of tastes according to the combinatorial approach. Perhaps though, there may be a meaningful manner of reposing the question in light of this, such that there may be a role for fuzzy sets in communication.

[@yepper1028]

Interesting as always. In next video, you are (as shown in the last few sec.) going to talk about Morse Code (dot/dash) and digital information (on/off). I can only assume that you are also going to talk about compression of information (and consequence there of; entropy, en/decoding time, algorithm, etc.). I think by talking about compression of information, it would tie well to your previous video (but of course, you already planned everything). Anyway, thanks for the video

[@Crux161]

Thank god it's been posted, I've been waiting so long! Now if it would only load! Grr..

[@safwan321]

I am currently doing my undergrad in Electrical Engineering and I really enjoy your videos and the topic. Do you have any suggestions/tips for me if I want to go into Information Theory, encryption etc. Like what kind of courses I should be looking at, what possible job/schooling opportunities exist, etc.

[@jdams]

my hypothesis: if you add a secondary dimension such as cadence, you would be able to reduce the size of the message without losing information by the square root of the size of the message???

[@diego898]

can't wait for the next one!

[@azujus]

This is an amazing video!

[@diego898]

absolutely fantastic! please keep up the good work!

[@trombone7]

Could 5:30 be wrong ? I tried checking if 2 to the power of the number of ingredients works with 3 ingredients, and it seems like it doesn't. If I have flavors A, B, C, that's 3 flavors so 2 to the power of 3. That's 8. But I only get 7. A AB AC ABC B BC C that's 7. Sorry, Sushruta. It doesn't work with 2 ingredients either. Am I missing something ?

[@ScarlettsLog]

I'm dying to watch the next prime adventure video.

[@canoai]

This is amazing. I wish your aproch was thought in school I wold love to study math only if I knew it is amazing. But I growed up hating it.

[@ArtOfTheProblem]

Well it's never too late to start, hope you enjoy the rest of the series! Thanks for the feedback

[@canoai]

Art of the Problem No, Thank YOU for the amazing work I'm enjoying the series :)

[@johnesco]

Regarding 5:44 So while I understand that 5 position on 2 torch groups = 10 (5x2) combinations, the spice example leaves one thing out. The multiplication method counts "Spice A mixed with Spice B", and "Spice B mixed with Spice A" and two district possibilities. However, you can't really say mint mixed with honey is different from honey mixed with mint. This is often called the "Handshake Problem" because the classic example is if you have 5 people, how many handshakes could there be. When you shake hands you typically shake once per pair, not twice (Alice and Bob shake hands, but multiplication would include Alice shaking Bob's hand and Bob shaking Alice's hand as two handshakes). So to figure out the combinations, it going to be .... n(n-1) / 2 The number of people/spices times itself, but minus one, then all divided in half. Thus if you have 6 spices... 6(6-1)/2 = 6(5)/2 = 30/2 = 15 which is also 5+4+3+2+1 So these spices combine into 15 combinations.

[@johnesco]

***** right, I understand the intended point, I'm just saying it's not the best example.

[@jaxx751]

The concept is combinations versus permutations.

[@mauryginsberg7720]

8:06 To what now?

[@frayed2004]

Wem Juckt das?

[@frayed2004]

ja eh