Copyright: 2007
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0-143-03839-7
I confess that it's been 2 months since I read this book so these notes are stale so I apologize. Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes, is a very fascinating read, although if you have read The User Illusion you will notice a great similarity between the books. In my opinion, Decoding was an easier read, albeit perhaps not as thorough as Illusion.
One of the fascinating aspects that Seife covers in Decoding the Universe is quantum information theory. The topic is interesting and Seife covers it in such a way that even I, a non-physicist type, could grasp what he was talking about. Of course I won't be expounding on qbits any time soon and much of the theory is far beyond anything I care to understand, but I felt like it was a good introductory tutorial so I at least know what the smart people are talking about when I hear them!
One tiny note that I thought was interesting on the information theory front was the notion that rules create redundancy. Redundancy makes things easier to understand. For instance, Seife plays with the words "fingry" and "trzeci". He points out that "fingry" almost sounds like an English word so you might try to place it in some sort of context. "Trzeci" on the other hand doesn't follow any of the rules of a normal English word so you know immediately that it is either a foreign word or nonsensical.
Using words and letters out of context or outside the rule book makes them stick out like a sore earlobe. Seife uses this turn of phrase to point out how quickly a broken rule can make you keenly aware of something different. The basis of information theory of course is how different something is from what came before. It is the difference of things that contains information but it is the redundancy that makes carrying information possible. (This is a gross oversimplification of information theory but it encapsulates a great deal.)
Conclusion
If you liked The User Illusion you will probably like this book. If you want to choose between one or the other, I would read this one for simplicity and because it is more current. Either book will give you a broad overview of information theory.