信息学是符号学学科,而其大多数相邻学科(包括机器人学、控制论以及目前称为情报科学的领域等)是专业或技术而非科学。不过信息科学和信息工程学(Informatic Engineering)并非绝对不能分开。关于信息学的符号学性质:在信息与通讯环境中,最小的元素称为信号(sign)。信号是意义与信息的基本载体,有关信息的基本科学就是对信号的结构、信号传载信息与意义的方式以及处理信号的方式等问题的研究。早在苏格拉底以前的哲学家时代,上述研究就被称为符号学。 Informatics is a semiotics discipline, and most of its neighbors, including robotics, cybernetics and what is now called intelligence science, are professional or technical rather than scientific. However, Informatics Engineering is not absolutely not divisible. About the semiotic nature of informatics: In the context of information and communication, the smallest element is called the sign. Signal is the basic carrier of meaning and information. The basic science of information is about the structure of signal, the way of signal carrying information and meaning and the way of dealing with signal. As early as the era of philosophers before Socrates, the above study was called semiotics.