Template:Featured/Claude E. Shannon

Claude E. Shannon (1916-2001) was an American mathematician and electrical engineer.

Claude Shannon's contributed to and influenced circuitry, computing, cryptography, artificial intelligence, and much more. His communication theory built on two insights: (i) That information reflects choices made; and thus reduces uncertainty and (ii) that information is inversely proportional to the amount of uncertainty. Further, probability can be used as a measure of uncertainty.

Shannon was concerned with the engineering problem of transmitting a message and he was explicit that his theory had nothing to do with meaning. "These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem," he wrote.

Shannon worked briefly on Vannevar Bush's microfilm rapid selector.

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