15 The Signal-to-Noise Ratio
15.1 Key Message
đź‘Ť Fine-tuning communication models
Like Data Science, Func Comm is concerned with optimisation, minimisation and the Signal-to-Noise ratio.
Fundamentally, communication just means that we have some message to transmite.g. we transmit a thought in our brain so that it can be recreated in someone else’s brain.
- Imagine ordering food, the waiter needs to receive your desired order in their head.
- For the most part this is unambiguous and although mistakes happen, they are rare.
- Thus we move a piece of information from one form, our brain, to another form, our partner’s brain.
- Unfortunately, the waiter can’t read our mind, and we can’t implant our thoughts in their head, so we need an intermediate form:
15.1.1 Communication is translation among forms.
- We translate the thought in our head to speech. the waiter translates the words they hear to a thought in their head.
- This is the process of encoding & decoding.
15.1.2 There are many forms and many modes of translation.
- We have three forms here: two thought forms and one oral form.
- The encoding mode is speaking and the decoding mode is listening.
- Speaking is the act of translating (encoding) thought to speech.
- Listening is the act of translating (decoding) speech to thought.
- If the communication is immediate, then the transition form is typically temporary and short-lived.
- When the intermediate form is last longer, or can be cataloged at a later date, it becomes the target form itself.
- Imagine a text
- If the communication is immediate, then the transition form is typically temporary and short-lived
- When the intermediate form is last longer, or can be cataloged at a later date, it becomes the target form itself.
- Imagine a text that will be read as some undetermined time in the future
15.1.3 Mode follows form.
The choice of mode is limited.
- First, by the origin form. i.e. not all modes apply to all forms.
- Second, by the target form. i.e. which is the most appropriate mode to achieve the target form.
Depending on the target, many modes of translation may be used simultaneously