A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age

✍️ Jimmy Soni

Claude Shannon is undoubtedly one of persons that have the most impact on our current lives. He is the father of Information Theory and his research in digital communications is the fundamental pillar of all the technology behind the internet, video streaming, cellular and satellite communications, among many others.

Despite all of this, Shannon is almost unknown to anyone outside the Electrical and Communications Engineering fields. This book will, hopefully, close this knowledge gap and make Shannon be recognized by the general population as the great scientist he was. By reading the book. we understand why Shannon is not as recognized as he deserves. He was very shy and kept a very low profile. In that sense, we should thank his mentors (Vannevar Bush, for example) for pushing Shannon forward, motivating and giving him key opportunities to flourish.

In addition to his work in Information Theory, we also get to know about his work in cryptography during the second world war, his early work in boolean algebra (which was also very impactful), his early pioneering discussions on artificial intelligence, and even some dilettante meanderings in genetics.

Apart from all his technical achievements, the book lead us to know the person behind the great scientist and this part of the book is even more interesting. We got to know about Shannon’s first marriage which did not work out and how he met his true soulmate Betty, who was an analyst at Bell Labs. She was instrumental as a proof reader for Shannon’s seminal Information Theory paper). We get to know about their house, where Shannon spent most of his time with his hobbies as tinkerer and gadget builder. The book also has truly great stories about Shannon, the stock market investor and Shannon, the gambler. To have an idea, he tried to devise schemes to beat the roulette in the casino. It is a highly recommended read.