Colin Cherry (1914–1979)

My second-edition copy of this book was so dated that it had moved past "old" and held a certain charm, with its talk of telegraphs and Morse code and "computing machines." But despite this, the book was worth a read even on technical grounds. Covered here are such vastly distinct fields as the nature of coding/signals, the physiology of vocal production, the not-oversimplified but not overwhelming math of signal transmission and noise, the statistical basics of information theory, and an show more introduction to the relative importance of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in human communication. I am certain that the increasing use of modern "computing machines" has also led to strides in communication theory, but this work still serves well as an introduction to some basic concepts and historical connections between fields as different as psychology and physics which have made contributions to this study. Cherry does a decent job of making the varied fields accessible, but I would by no means recommend this to a general reader who shies away from mathematical symbolism or physics. show less