excellent article on the life of the inventor of "information theory," Claude Shannon
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[^] A remarkable person. Fine writing like this is too good not to share !
Quote:
A clue to the origins of Shannon’s genius can be found in the sheer scope of his intellectual interests. He was a peculiar sort of engineer – one known for juggling and riding a unicycle through Bell Labs’ corridors, and whose creations included a flame-throwing trumpet, a calculator called ‘THROBAC’ that operated in Roman numerals (short for ‘Thrifty Roman-Numeral Backward-Looking Computer’), and a mechanical mouse named Theseus that could locate a piece of metallic cheese in a maze. Genetics, artificial intelligence, computer chess, jazz clarinet and amateur poetry numbered among his other pursuits. Some of these predated his work on information theory, while he turned to others later in life. But what remained constant was Shannon’s ability to be as captivated by the capering spectacle of life and language as he was by physics and numbers. Information had begun, after all, as a philosophical term of art, and getting at its foundations entailed just the sort of questions we might expect a linguist or a philosopher to take up.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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[^] A remarkable person. Fine writing like this is too good not to share !
Quote:
A clue to the origins of Shannon’s genius can be found in the sheer scope of his intellectual interests. He was a peculiar sort of engineer – one known for juggling and riding a unicycle through Bell Labs’ corridors, and whose creations included a flame-throwing trumpet, a calculator called ‘THROBAC’ that operated in Roman numerals (short for ‘Thrifty Roman-Numeral Backward-Looking Computer’), and a mechanical mouse named Theseus that could locate a piece of metallic cheese in a maze. Genetics, artificial intelligence, computer chess, jazz clarinet and amateur poetry numbered among his other pursuits. Some of these predated his work on information theory, while he turned to others later in life. But what remained constant was Shannon’s ability to be as captivated by the capering spectacle of life and language as he was by physics and numbers. Information had begun, after all, as a philosophical term of art, and getting at its foundations entailed just the sort of questions we might expect a linguist or a philosopher to take up.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
'Auricle' did I ear that correctly :confused:
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'Auricle' did I ear that correctly :confused:
I plead vision problems, and being up to the gills in anti-inflammatories :) thanks, Bill
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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[^] A remarkable person. Fine writing like this is too good not to share !
Quote:
A clue to the origins of Shannon’s genius can be found in the sheer scope of his intellectual interests. He was a peculiar sort of engineer – one known for juggling and riding a unicycle through Bell Labs’ corridors, and whose creations included a flame-throwing trumpet, a calculator called ‘THROBAC’ that operated in Roman numerals (short for ‘Thrifty Roman-Numeral Backward-Looking Computer’), and a mechanical mouse named Theseus that could locate a piece of metallic cheese in a maze. Genetics, artificial intelligence, computer chess, jazz clarinet and amateur poetry numbered among his other pursuits. Some of these predated his work on information theory, while he turned to others later in life. But what remained constant was Shannon’s ability to be as captivated by the capering spectacle of life and language as he was by physics and numbers. Information had begun, after all, as a philosophical term of art, and getting at its foundations entailed just the sort of questions we might expect a linguist or a philosopher to take up.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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I plead vision problems, and being up to the gills in anti-inflammatories :) thanks, Bill
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
Then I confess being on antibiotics for a week (toothache) :-\
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Then I confess being on antibiotics for a week (toothache) :-\
Well, all right, then, we've both done the righteous: we can hug like brothers again :cool:
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)
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Thanks ! I'm looking forward to reading.
«While I complain of being able to see only a shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is now, since I'm not at a stage of development where I'm capable of seeing it.» Claude Levi-Strauss (Tristes Tropiques, 1955)