Information vs. Feedback — What's the Difference?

Information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty; it answers the question of "What an entity is" and thus defines both its essence and the nature of its characteristics. The concept of information has different meanings in different contexts.

Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to feed back into itself.

Knowledge or facts learned, especially about a certain subject or event.

The return of a portion of the output of a process or system to the input, especially when used to maintain performance or to control a system or process.

The act of informing or the condition of being informed; communication of knowledge

The portion of the output so returned.

(Computers) Processed, stored, or transmitted data.

Sound created when a transducer, such as a microphone or the pickup of an electric guitar, picks up sound from a speaker connected to an amplifier and regenerates it back through the amplifier.

A numerical measure of the uncertainty of an experimental outcome.

The return of information about the result of a process or activity; evaluative response

(Law) A formal accusation of a crime made by a public officer rather than by grand jury indictment in instances in which the offense, if a federal crime, is not a felony or in which the offense, if a state crime, is allowed prosecution in that manner rather than by indictment.

The process by which a system, often biological or ecological, is modulated, controlled, or changed by the product, output, or response it produces.

That which resolves uncertainty; anything that answers the question of "what a given entity is".

Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.

Things that are or can be known about a given topic; communicable knowledge of something.

The part of an output signal that is looped back into the input to control or modify a system.

The act of informing or imparting knowledge; notification.

The high-pitched howling noise heard when there is a loop between a microphone and a speaker.

A statement of criminal activity brought before a judge or magistrate; in the UK, used to inform a magistrate of an offence and request a warrant; in the US, an accusation brought before a judge without a grand jury indictment.

(music) To generate the high-frequency sound by allowing a speaker to cause vibration of the sound generator of a musical instrument connected by an amplifier to the speaker.

(obsolete) The act of informing against someone, passing on incriminating knowledge; accusation.

(transitive) To provide informational feedback to.

The systematic imparting of knowledge; education, training.

(transitive) To convey by means of specialized communications channel.

The creation of form; the imparting of a given quality or characteristic; forming, animation.

The process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input.

[…] the meaning that a human assigns to data by means of the known conventions used in its representation.

Response to an inquiry or experiment.

(Christianity) Divine inspiration.

The process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input in order to regulate its further output

A service provided by telephone which provides listed telephone numbers of a subscriber.

Response to an inquiry or experiment

(information theory) Any unambiguous abstract data, the smallest possible unit being the bit.

As contrasted with data, information is processed to extract relevant data.

(information technology) Any ordered sequence of symbols (or signals) (that could contain a message).

The act of informing, or communicating knowledge or intelligence.

Any fact or set of facts, knowledge, news, or advice, whether communicated by others or obtained by personal study and investigation; any datum that reduces uncertainty about the state of any part of the world; intelligence; knowledge derived from reading, observation, or instruction.

A proceeding in the nature of a prosecution for some offense against the government, instituted and prosecuted, really or nominally, by some authorized public officer on behalf of the government. It differs from an indictment in criminal cases chiefly in not being based on the finding of a grand jury. See Indictment.

A measure of the number of possible choices of messages contained in a symbol, signal, transmitted message, or other information-bearing object; it is usually quantified as the negative logarithm of the number of allowed symbols that could be contained in the message; for logarithms to the base 2, the measure corresponds to the unit of information, the hartley, which is log210, or 3.323 bits; called also information content. The smallest unit of information that can be contained or transmitted is the bit, corresponding to a yes-or-no decision.

Useful facts, as contrasted with raw data; as, among all this data, there must be some interesting information.

A message received and understood

A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn;

Knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction

(communication theory) a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome;

Formal accusation of a crime