Course Description

Instructor: Bob Sullivan, BS, PhD, Chemistry

We’ll discuss the history of information, from primitive writing to the internet, and speculate about what might be next. The course will address technologies, societal effects, and biographies of great figures. We’ll consider how the very definition of information was influenced by, and in turn influenced, this history. Attention will be paid to biological natural selection as an informational process, and to principles of encryption and decryption (including decryption of ancient texts—which have been “encrypted� by time.) Class discussion is encouraged.

Bob worked at Coca Cola Co. as a research and development chemist from 1958-1993.