ABSTRACT
Thus far, we have said much about information, but information itself remains an abstract concept. We can assert that a text conveys a lot or a little information, but in the end, we still are not sure how much. For example, how much information does a 500,000-character Chinese book contain, and what about a complete set of Shakespeare's plays? Likewise, we often claim that information is useful, but in what way, and to what quantifiable extent? For thousands of years, no one had a satisfying theoretical answer to these questions.
