
Claude Shannon: Tinkerer, Prankster, and Father of Information Theory - fauria
http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/claude-shannon-tinkerer-prankster-and-father-of-information-theory
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SocksCanClose
Those interested in reading a more narrative-style recounting of Mr. Shannon's
efforts ought pick up a copy of "The Information: A History, A Theory, A
Flood" by James Gleick. It is one of the most fantastic books I have ever
read. Informative, entertaining, engrossing. From Babbage's learning machines
through the present, I can think of no better introduction to these critical
concepts.

~~~
trgn
Gleick's book encouraged me to read Shannon's The Mathematical Theory of
Communication.

Shannon's conversational tone in the first half is amazing. This is a primary
work, laying out a novel idea, but it reads as if it were the most self-
evident thing there is, and you're just being nudged along a little bit. Was
this the norm in the 40s for technical papers, or was Shannon just a great
writer? (The second half delves deeper in the calculus behind it, which I
found difficult).

Anyway, The Information is a great read indeed, but Shannon's original is
surprisingly engaging and accessible.

~~~
jey
No, Shannon was just a great writer. For instance, Turing's writings haven't
aged as well.

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javajosh
Economically, can such a life exist anymore? Two masters degrees, a pure R&D
job at Bell Labs, earned enough for a nice house in Cambridge, MA, to raise a
family. Are there any young men (or women) on a similar path? And if so, what
are the organizations involved? (The closest analog would be the startup
scene, but the primary "R&D" for startups is usually either done or just
needing to be tweaked for market fit.)

~~~
BostonEnginerd
This is one of the things that really concerns me! It's really no longer
possible for one person to work a "normal" job and afford a house/condo in
Boston/Cambridge/Somerville, etc. Now it takes two doctors living together to
get anywhere.

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vinchuco
>“I’ve always pursued my interests without much regard for final value or
value to the world,” he said cheerfully. “I’ve spent lots of time on totally
useless things.”

>“A lot of practical people around the labs thought it was an interesting
theory but not very useful,”

~~~
JoeDaDude
Amongst other "useless" pursuits, Shannon built several machines to play board
games, justified as part of his interest in artificial intelligence. See a
quick summary here: [https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/143233/claude-shannon-
man...](https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/143233/claude-shannon-man-games-
and-machines)

~~~
cushychicken
More than a few of these are on display at the MIT museum in Cambridge, MA.
Very awesome. Shannon made more intricate things as toys for his children than
many of the things I've made professionally.

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diego898
Out of the various pieces published on the centennial in Time, NYT, etc. this
is by far the best. It goes into much more detail, personal and technical, and
includes wonderful photos

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deepnet
The Transoceanic crypto system Shannon created so Churchill & Roosevelt could
conference call was brilliant.

It was a sonic one-time pad, L.P.s were sent to Britain and America.

They were played over the conversation, simply adding noise - precisely
calibrated by Shannon's signal to noise ratio formula.

The noise was subtracted at the other end, but any eavesdroppers on the
transatlantic cable would have been unable to listen without the L.P.s and
circuitry.

So while Enigma was being cracked at Bletchly Park, Churchill and Roosevent
could chat on the phone, provable securely.

~~~
keithpeter
Anyone tried a demo of this one with (say) Audacity generated noise sample and
a few words mixed well down then 'decoded'?

Would be fun to see how far you could degrade the encoded voice recording
before decoding became problematic.

~~~
deepnet
That sounds worth a go, although Shannon's system was analogue rather than
digital which might have made a difference to the point where signal is
unrecoverable from noise.

Then there is the noise from the transatlantic cable.

~~~
keithpeter
_" Then there is the noise from the transatlantic cable."_

Sure would be, and then there would be severe bandwidth limitations, frequency
dependent phase delays and so on. I can remember transatlantic cable telephone
calls in 1960s/1970s (I was a small boy at the time) and they sounded like the
Daleks.

That is the interesting bit: US President says stuff into microphone and we
have

(President + Local Recorded Noise) convolved with Transatlantic cable = Input

Then we have Churchill in his Siren Suit with a brandy or three playing his
noise LP (I gather that they were 16" acetates at 78rpm)

Input - Local Recorded Noise = something like President.

I'll have a play over the weekend: just how bad can the transatlantic cable
get before you lose the signal?

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avs733
I have generally found that one of the best ways to make young engineers and
scientists appreciate the importance and difficulty of interpersonal
communication is to show them some of Claude Shannon (and other Bell Lab'ers)
work on information theory and communication research.

We think about Shannon as the architect of many many advances in technology
but his impact has been much broader. This includes a huge amount liberal arts
focused work in the field of communications.

That and he has a doctorate in juggling...

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hinkley
I didn't know Mr Information Theory had Alzheimer's.

Man, the universe has a cruel sense of irony sometimes.

~~~
ericjang
I've attempted to learn more about Shannon's battle with Alzheimers, but found
little information on the subject. Are there any interesting readings on this,
perhaps in his biography?

~~~
hinkley
I just saw a footnote saying that he died at 83 after a long battle with
Alzheimer's. Unfortunately that's as far as I looked.

(I find the notion of losing my marbles or my vision terrifying, so I usually
run away from such discussions).

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Aelinsaar
Shannon is one of those names, like Riemann or Boltzmann, that I keep running
across in quantum mechanics. This was a very interesting article to read.

~~~
stuxnet79
Didn't know Shannon was a figurehead in QM, but then again I hardly know any
quantum mechanics - mind summarizing his contributions to the field for a lay
person.

~~~
fouc
Might have to do with the role of information in QM.

~~~
stuxnet79
Makes sense, I thought it was something completely unrelated to information
theory.

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gtrubetskoy
A great book on Shannon's work and other things is "Fortune's Formula: The
Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall
Street". Easy and entertaining to read, as are all William Poundstone books.

[http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-
Ca...](http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-
Casinos/dp/0809045990)

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coldcode
I wonder if there is any correlation between genius and a sense of humor.

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chrispeel
I'd love a biography of Shannon!

