The mathematical prodigy who gave the world ‘bits’

❝Many people, most notably Al Gore, have claimed to be the father of the information age; but Claude Shannon probably deserves the most credit. In 1948, he wrote an article that is considered to be the “Magna Carta” of information technology. In their book “A Mind at Play,” Jimmy Son and Rob Goodman explain how this nearly forgotten American genius revolutionized the way we think about communications.
Shannon was a mathematical prodigy who could actually do things. As a boy in rural Michigan, he turned barbed wire fences into telegraphs. Later in life, he built the first chess playing computer as well as robots and a juggling clown. All of this was done just for fun, but he was a legitimate American scientific giant with multiple advanced degrees in math and engineering.
Claude Shannon was of draft age when conscription was introduced as America reluctantly stood on the brink of entry into World War II. He was a person who did not like being in large groups of people and realized that soldiering was not probably a good fit. Instead, he contributed to the war effort by working at the legendary Bell Labs skunk works and his efforts at creating an unbreakable code contributed immeasurably to victory.❞

Tags: Claude Shannon + Al Gore + information age + 1948 + A Mind at Play + Jimmy Son + Rob Goodman + mathematical prodigy + Michigan + telegraphs + first chess playing computer + juggling clown + Bell Labs