Claude Shannon Genius Comparable To Einstein Philosophy Essay

Claude Shannon Genius equal To Einstein Philosophy Es p surviveThe world is filled with all types of technologies and randomness. on that point be computing turns that make normally tedious tasks simplier, ph ones that allows instant communication crosswise the world, CDs that ass store outsize amounts of information in a teensy area. In modern cartridge h agingers, we lay claim for granted how much easier our daily biography is with these innovations. It truly is a large step from the potbellydles centuries ago to flicking a leaf to brighten up a room. Of course, this step couldnt eat up been taken without the utilisation and studies by Claude Shannon. When described, Claude Shannon is said to agree an ever lasting curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. Shannon is even compared to Albert Einstein for his ability to come up with unconnected yet groundbreaking motifs. He came up with the idea of digital circuitry, bring a way to represent human genetics with algebr a, an weighty guess almost information, and has done a attractor of work in cryptology. point then(prenominal), that is just scratching the surface of what he has accomplished. Just one of these accomplishments could have forever written him into the textbooks. It is important to none that Shannon, while intelligent, was in no means the most knowledgeable person there is. Like Einstein, Shannons asterisk came from his drive to satisfy his curiosity and ability to think outside the box. Claude Shannons quest of knowledge led to large techno consistent advancements that shaped the States and the reliever of the world.Throughout his entire life, Claude Shannon has achieved numerous accomplishments that effectively makes him forever remembered throughout America and, to a lesser degree, the world. Shannon was born in Petoskey, Michigan on April 30, 1916. plot of ground growing up, he was talented in the fields of science and mathss and looked up to a famous distant relati ve, Thomas Edison. duration his start out made mathematics a hobby, it was his grandfather that helped influence Shannons love for science. Shannon build many small braids such as a telegraph or a remote controlled model boat in his free m as a child. This child man age urge to invent and insure lasted throughout nearly his entire life.During 1932, Shannon graduated high school and then enrolled at the University of Michigan a short time later. Four days later in 1936, Shannon graduated with a B.S. degree in galvanic Engineering as well as a B.S. degree in Mathematics. After his graduation from the University of Michigan, he entered the Massach routinetts Institute of Technology as a research assistant to both further his studies towards a higher(prenominal) degree and work part time. It was during this time that he wrote his sweep over thesis on digital circuitry as well as his doctorate thesis for representing genetics with algebra. In 1940 his earned his masters degre e in electric engineering and doctorate in mathematics.After his graduation, Shannon went on to work at Bell Telephone Laboratories. For over a year, he did numerous amounts of whole kit such as creating a new design for switching circuits. In 1941, a committee was formed to design anti-aircraft detectors in order to remediate the war effort. Shannon was invited to join, and helped finish the completed design. It was collect to this that the bombing effort against England terminate with less casualties than there could have been. For the next 15 years, Shannon spent his time amongst many succeederful and important mathematicians and engineers. This time period is too when Shannon highly-developed his Information Theory, which was published in 1948.Claude Shannons contributions to America received a lot of recognition. For his scheme on digital circuits, he received the Alfred Noble laurels reward in 1939. President Lyndon B. tin canson presented Shannon with the National Me dal of Science in 1966, and in the same year he was given the Institute of galvanizing and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honor. In 1985, Shannon also received the Kyoto shekels which is comm still compared to the Nobel Prize in America. Among many other rewards, Shannon also has nearly a cardinal honorary doctorates in various universities and was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame. still after he became an adult, Shannon maintained his childish personality, his passion for inventing, and drive to lead his knowledge. In his life, he made numerous assorted small toys, many of which he felt were just as important, if not much than so, than his theories that changed the world. John Horgan told his experience with interviewing Shannon, Im trying to get him to recall how he came up with the speculation of information. But Shannonis tired of expounding on his past. Wouldnt I sort of hold in his toys? (**) Shannon most likely felt that each of his toys were just as important as anything else he public opinion of. He just wasnt content with flood tide up with revolutionizing ideas, no, he went above and beyond to discover everything he could. This is wherefore Shannon was immortalized as one of the greatest thinkers. It wasnt a matter of finding fame and fortune, he was just as content to create robots that can juggle as he was for creating his famous information possibleness.It is the fate of every living instrument to eventually die, and although Shannons ideals will be forever immortalized, he too could not resist this fate. He died on February 24, 2001, after losing a battle against Alzheimers disease. Shannon is survived by his wife Mary Elizabeth Shannon, along with three children.In the 18th century, a temper mathematician named George Boole created a method to solve or model logical statements using algebraic expressions. Boole named his concept Booles system, and is more commonly known as boolean logic. This logic revolves around ones and zeroes along with logic entrances that take input(s) and then give out an output. Another way to think of these ones and zeroes is true(a) and false, or on and off. At the time of creation, George Boole received little to no praise for developing this system after all, there didnt seem to be any real use with it. While George Boole died without his system going anywhere, Claude Shannon anchor out the huge amount of potential George Booles idea had when applied to circuits.While at MIT, Claude Shannon worked with an associate named Vannevar Bush on studying an analog computer called a differential analyzer. This computer used wheel and disk mechanisms in order to solve equations typically encountered in calculus. Shannon noticed that the circuits used in the computer had only two states of being, namely on and off. Reminded of Booles system from his math courses, Shannon thought about the possibility of applying that logic to circuits and realized it could open up a wi de range of new possibilities and usages. Shannon used this discovery for his master thesis at MIT, called A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and work shift Circuits. H. H. Goldstine, in his book The Computer from Pascal to Von Neumann, called Shannons these one of the most worlds important masters thesis ever written (6).Digital circuitry is based firmly on Booles system. Yet, quite of theoretical ones and zeroes, it uses two states of being on and off. consider of a button that was pressed, will send electricity to a light, thereof lighting it up. Now, this doesnt have much variety. Press the button and the light goes on, change state it and the light goes off. If a logic gate from boolean logic is borrowed, say the AND gate, then there is a large amount of possibilties that open up. An AND gate would only give out electricity to the light if and only if it has two sources of electricity flowing into it. If there are two buttons that each lead to the AND gate, than the light woul d only go on when both buttons are pushed or rather when both buttons give electricity to the AND gate. While this is a unproblematic example of how digital circuitry works, there are plenty of other more useful examples including lightning quick mathematical calculations or permanent data warehousing that can be read and editted. Of course, those are rather complex designs to complete.No matter where one looks, digital circuitry is prevalent. It forms of the core of every digital device ranging from something as simple as a bedside lamp to the digital computers used to graze the internet. Without the idea of digital circuitry, the world would be a vastly different place than what it currently is. Electrical engineers immediately suited his ideas on digital circuitry for their use in World War II. The creation of pocket calculators were made, removing the necassity for err rules in many jobs. The home computer started to come into make itance a suspender decades afterwards. Just about everything that was invented decades afterwards and used electricity relied on Shannons thesis. notwithstanding technology that was invented before Shannons thesis was published could be refurbished into a device far more efficient, accurate, and of a higher quality overall.Communication across distances didnt always start out with crystal clear messages, nor was communication right understood. Before the mid 20th century, the idea of telegraphs, telephones, television, and similar devices were rigid and unadaptable. It was thought that telephones could only send signals that represent voices, and only that. As such, a fact such as sending a video over a phone line would be dismissed as fantasy put up then, even though its done currently. This all changed with the publishing of Shannons information possibleness in his cover, Mathematical Theory of Communication.Claude Shannon didnt just pop out a theory after thinking for a little while. Although he can claim to hav e developed the information theory fully, he did have help from research a few decades previously. Harry Nyquists typography in 1924, Certain Factors Affecting Telegraph Speed, has multiple important ideas inscribed in it. For instance, he started to stray from the idea of focusing on the content of the signals, and instead focused on the fact that the signals are information. Nyquist also developed a formula to determine that max amount of intelligence that can be described in a message. Of course, it still had its flaws for it only worked on a telegraph wires. Four laters later, in 1928, another engineer named R.V.L. Hartley wrote a paper that improved on Nyquists rule to work on more systems of transmission. This paper emphasised that transmitting information should only depend on reservation sure the transmission from start to end is distinguished, without outside signals intruding nor one worry about the meaning of the information. Shannon cited the works of both Nyquist and Hartley in his paper, and when interviewed decades later, he mentioned the importance of their ideas to his own (**).Now what is this all important information theory that keeps being mentioned? In its most basic form, it contains two parts. First, it gives the general idea of on the definition and measurement of information. Information is based on the log of possible symbols availaible. Shannon used the logarithm base of 2, which mean that the smallest unit of information is represented by either a zero or a one, which was called a bit. Sound familiar? The second part of the information theory contains details on the limits of information being sent, as well as the effect of outside interference, also called entropy, on the information. In the past, engineers were limited by how much information could be sent, often thinking it depended on factors like frequency. Shannon use his theory to prove that by using the concept of entropy, or randomness, along with statistical probabilit y to get the maximum amount of information possible. Shannon was also proved how to transmit information error free, despite merely much noise there may be.The information theory itself can be complex to understand, yet it is simple to understand its many benefits. These benefits that exist solely due to the existance of the information theory are diverse. Not only is the information theory used in communication and computing, but also in psychology, linguistics, and even thermal physics. Many plagiarism detection programs use the information theory in order to measure shared information. in that location is the coding theory, which is in its simplest terms error detection and correction. Computer programmers, for example, are assisted in debugging glitches in software using the coding theory. much important however, is that its the reason why CDs can still function right even when scratched. The information theory led to data compression techniques, which in turn led to new use ful file types such as ZIP and MP3. The theory was also crucial for the function of the internet. eve the success of space exploration programs depended on the information theory to reduce the problems of noise and static caused from the enourmous distance between planets.The accomplishments made by Claude Shannon had a large impact on how the United States developed as well as how the world lives today. Just about anything in the world that uses information exists due to Claude Shannons work. Electronics, ranging from simple lamps to supercomputers, are all based upon digital circuitry. While it is debatable that someone would have came up with a similar idea of digital circuitry in the next decade, the United States benefited most from its immediate discovery.Shannon has also worked on cryptology during World War II, managing to help decode enemy transmissions and vie a large role in the encryption of US messages. Even presently Claude Shannons influence is felt, new inventions are being created that depend on his ideas. It is much like a tree, where Shannon is the trunk with new innovations being the branches that take place to grow outward.Much of Shannons success is due to his insatiable hunger for knowledge. nearly of the worlds population would be content to have done even a tenth of what Shannon has done, yet Shannon himself never was. This is likely because of Shannons child like personality. In his spare time, he developed numerous small trinkets. Not because his name and address was fame and fortune, but simply because he wanted to. Why talk about his ground breaking information theory, when his juggling robots are just as important to him? Shannon just didnt want to stop thinking, even at an old age, because inventing and theorizing was fun for him. In an interview he stated, I am more interested in the elegance of a problem. Is it a good problem, an kindle problem? 66 Near the end of his life, he worked on artificial intelligences. Computer s that could change course the best chess players was an intriguing idea, just like his mouse that could adapt to solve any maze, or a rubix cube solver. While others his age were relaxing in retirement, Shannon enjoyed thinking of new ideas, theories, and discoveries. Talent or genius isnt determined by the efforts or intelligence of a person, but rather their ability to pursue their options whole heartedly.