(Fwd) Shannon

[Nagypal Laszlo]

   Az infornacioelmelet egyik nagy oregje tavozott. Talan
valamennyire erdekelheti a hir a konyvtaros szakmat is. Ezert
tovabbitom az alabbi nekrologot a KOGLIST jovoltabol. (NpL)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 06:22:20 -0000
From: Ian Pitchford <ian.pitchford at scientist.com>
To: evolutionary-psychology at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [evol-psych] Claude Shannon, Father of Information
Theory, Dies at 84

Murray Hill, N.J. (Feb. 26, 2001) -- Claude Elwood Shannon, the
mathematician who laid the foundation of modern information
theory while working at Bell Labs in the 1940s, died on Saturday.
He was 84.

Shannon's theories are as relevant today as they were when he first
formulated them. "It was truly visionary thinking," said Arun Netravali,
president of Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs. "As if assuming that
inexpensive, high-speed processing would come to pass, Shannon
figured out the upper limits on communication rates. First in
telephone channels, then in optical communications, and now in
wireless, Shannon has had the utmost value in defining the
engineering limits we face."

In 1948 Shannon published his landmark A Mathematical Theory of
Communication. He begins this pioneering paper on information
theory by observing that "the fundamental problem of
communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or
approximately a message selected at another point." He then
proceeds to so thoroughly establish the foundations of information
theory that his framework and terminology remain standard.

Shannon's theory was an immediate success with communications
engineers and stimulated the technology which led to today's
Information Age.

Shannon published many more provocative and influential articles
in a variety of disciplines. His master's thesis, A Symbolic Analysis
of Relay and Switching Circuits, used Boolean algebra to establish
the theoretical underpinnings of digital circuits. This work has broad
significance because digital circuits are fundamental to the
operation of modern computers and telecommunications systems.

Another example is Shannon's 1949 paper entitled Communication
Theory of Secrecy Systems. This work is now generally credited
with transforming cryptography from an art to a science.

Shannon was born in Petoskey, Michigan, on April 30, 1916. He
graduated from th e University of Michigan in 1936 with bachelor's
degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering. In 1940 he
earned both a master's degree in electrical engineering and a
Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT).

Shannon joined the mathematics department at Bell Labs in 1941
and remained affiliated with the Labs until 1972. He became a
visiting professor at MIT in 1956, a permanent member of the
faculty in 1958, and a professor emeritus in 1978.

Shannon was renowned for his eclectic interests and capabilities. A
favorite story describes him juggling while riding a unicycle down the
halls of Bell Labs.

He designed and built chess-playing, maze-solving, juggling and
mind-reading machines. These activities bear out Shannon's claim
that he was more motivated by curiosity than usefulness.

In his words "I just wondered how things were put together."

For more information on Claude Shannon, please see Information
Theory

[From: http://www.bell-labs.com/news/2001/february/26/1.html]
Additional information in The Human Nature Daily Review
http://human-nature.com/nibbs/