Informiin

Informiin is a speculative unit used in discussions of information quality and decision usefulness. Unlike a bit, which measures information in a Shannon sense, informiin aims to capture the practical value of information for a specific decision-maker in a real-world context: how much the information reduces uncertainty, and how actionable the outcome becomes.

Origin and usage: Informiin is a neologism that appears in discussions of information ethics, media literacy, and thought experiments about AI and governance. It is not part of formal information theory, and definitions vary by author and situation.

Measurement and interpretation: As a flexible concept, informiin is not tied to a fixed numerical scale. In studies or debates, researchers may define a scale tailored to the scenario, describing an informiin as the amount of information that would shift a recommended action or increase decision confidence under a stated prior. The value is inherently contextual, depending on prior beliefs, stakes, and costs.

Examples: In a hypothetical policy briefing, learning a verified projection that changes the preferred mitigation strategy could be described as producing several informiin, whereas a routine update with little impact would yield few or none.

Criticism: Critics argue that informiin’s vagueness limits its usefulness for rigorous analysis and risks conflating data quality with practical impact. Proponents say the term helps foreground the distinction between data, information, and value in decision making.

See also: information, data, knowledge, information theory, information utility.