• DocumentCode
    961964
  • Title

    Mathematical considerations in seeking fundamental limits to professional communication processes and effects

  • Author

    Harkins, Craig

  • Author_Institution
    IBM Corporation, San Jose, CA
  • Volume
    69
  • Issue
    2
  • fYear
    1981
  • Firstpage
    167
  • Lastpage
    170
  • Abstract
    It is unusual (and often, unfashionable) to seek fundamental limits to human phenomena such as professional communication. It is axiomatic that human potential is virtually unlimited and, therefore, to suggest such limits is considered (by some) to be almost inhuman. Nevertheless, if it can be given that professional communication primarily involves mass communication principles, then fundamental limits are implicit in the two basic models used to explain the field: 1) the Shannon-Weaver model of a general communication system, and 2) the diffusion of innovation S-curve. Scientific methods can be used to measure human, or professional, communication phenomena-but measurement error is bound to be far greater than that for the physical sciences.
  • Keywords
    Anthropometry; Communication systems; Helium; Humans; Measurement errors; Measurement uncertainty; Professional communication; Psychology; Shape; Technological innovation;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Proceedings of the IEEE
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    0018-9219
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/PROC.1981.11949
  • Filename
    1456217