CODE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 462 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
A specific set of signals and their rules of interconnection, forming a communication system used to transmit messages.
There exists a great variety of codes.
Some have a material base, as for example the old flags code in the navy, or any printed alphabet. Others use modulations of some form of energy, as for example sound waves or electro-magnetic ones.
There are also more abstract types of codes, all of them somehow related with transmission of some kind of information between sentient and intelligent beings.
Written or spoken languages, with their specific phonemes, morphemes, vocabularies and syntaxes, are of this type, as well as logical and mathematical languages and some more specific scientific sub-languages used in specialized disciplines.
For any transmission of information at the mental level, both an abstract code and a physical one are generally needed in a sequential way.
The use of any code supposes that it is known by receivers as well as by senders.
Codes must be sufficiently permanent and rigid in order to remain useful.