Definitions
Communication
system or a process can be defined as ”The transmission of
information from the source of information to the user of
information.” or as ”The facility consisting of the physical
plants and equipment for disseminating information.”
Main components of the communication
system
A communication
system has five main components:
- An information source. It provides a message or many of them.
- A transmitter. It transforms the message to a signal.
- A communication channel. It is the medium that is used to move the signal from transmitter to a receiver.
- A receiver. It reconstructs the signal back into a message.
- The destination. It is the person for whom the message was intended to send.
In addition to
these five components there are many less important ones like filters
and amplifiers. There can also be many components such as
transmitters, channels and receivers between the original information
source and the destination. Communications systems are not perfect.
There can be noise that creates distortions at any point between the
source and the destination. You should never assume that there are no
distortions. Transmitter can incorrectly change the message,
communication channel can create noise by having too many signals
moving through it at the same time, and receiver can incorrectly
process the signal, which can lead to errors at the destination. The
more components there are between the original source and the last
destination, the more probable are the errors. This is one reason why
you need some filtering for the message. Filters can be put anywhere
in the system.
My writings as a communication
system
Lets start from
the sources. Most of the sources are the authors of the books I have
read or their sources. Sometimes they are interviews of the experts
in some other mediums like Youtube. You can also see it otherwise.
For example, you can think about the authors as transmitters and
their books as the communication channel. And then my mind is the
receiver and my laptop is the destination. I create notes from the
books of the authors and put them in my laptop. Now my notes are the
source, I am the transmitter, and the communication channel is this
blog. Your mind is the receiver and you are the final destination who
decides what to do with the information I produce. You can see this
communication systems having two subsystems with five main components
in each as a whole single system.
As you can see,
this system is not optimal for understanding mental models. It has
too many components. And all of them can create more noise to the
system. You could go through all the sources I use by yourself. This
would eliminate many unnecessary components. It is not this simple of
course. You have to consider the opportunity costs too. Going through
all the sources take lots of time. And your time can be more valuable
to you than learning more about each of the models. One source of
errors is the language. I am not a native English speaker and I
cannot copy my sources. This creates some unintended consequences. I
can interpret differently things that I am reading and publish
something that is not 100% right. The probability of this happening
is very close to 100% in the long run. I would appreciate if somebody
would tell me, when this happened and give me a reason for it. It
would also help other readers.
A communication
system is a topic that would require a lot more explaining. But to
keep things simple, this text is enough for now.
-TT
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