Editing Claude Shannon (section)

==Biography==

===Childhood===
The Shannon family lived in [[Gaylord, Michigan]], and Claude was born in a hospital that was nearby [[Petoskey, Michigan|Petoskey]].<ref name="bmfrs"/> His father, Claude Sr. (1862–1934), was a businessman and, for a while, a judge of [[probate]] in [[Gaylord, Michigan|Gaylord]]. His mother, Mabel Wolf Shannon (1880–1945), was a language teacher, who also served as the principal of [[Gaylord High School]].{{sfnp|Sloane|Wyner|1993|p=xi}} Claude Sr. was a descendant of [[Colonial history of New Jersey|New Jersey settlers]], while Mabel was a child of German immigrants.<ref name="bmfrs"/> Shannon's family was active in their Methodist Church during his youth.<ref name="Soni Goodman 2017 p. 6">{{cite book | last1=Soni | first1=J. | last2=Goodman | first2=R. | title=A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age | publisher=Simon & Schuster | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-4767-6668-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gygsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 | access-date=2023-05-02 | page=6}}</ref>

Most of the first 16 years of Shannon's life were spent in Gaylord, where he attended public school, graduating from Gaylord High School in 1932. Shannon showed an inclination towards mechanical and electrical things. His best subjects were science and mathematics. At home, he constructed such devices as models of planes, a radio-controlled model boat and a barbed-wire [[telegraph]] system to a friend's house a half-mile away.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/30/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-claude-shannon-b-1916-bit-player.html|title=THE LIVES THEY LIVED: CLAUDE SHANNON, B. 1916; Bit Player|first=James|last=Gleick|date=December 30, 2001|journal=The New York Times Magazine|page=Section 6, Page 48|author-link=James Gleick}}</ref> While growing up, he also worked as a messenger for the [[Western Union]] company.

Shannon's childhood hero was [[Thomas Edison]], who he later learned was a distant cousin. Both Shannon and Edison were descendants of [[John Ogden (colonist)|John Ogden]] (1609–1682), a colonial leader and an ancestor of many distinguished people.<ref name="MIT obituary">{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2001/shannon.html|title=MIT Professor Claude Shannon dies; was founder of digital communications|website=MIT News office|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|date=February 27, 2001}}</ref><ref name="sloane-wyner93">{{cite book| title=Claude Elwood Shannon: Collected Papers | editor1-first=N.J.A | editor1-last=Sloane | editor2-first=Aaron D. | editor2-last=Wyner | publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons|Wiley]]/[[IEEE Press]] | isbn=978-0-7803-0434-5 | date=1993 | url=http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0780304349.html | access-date=December 9, 2016 }}</ref>

===Logic circuits===
In 1932, Shannon entered the [[University of Michigan]], where he was introduced to the work of [[George Boole]]. He graduated in 1936 with two [[bachelor's degree]]s: one in [[electrical engineering]] and the other in mathematics.

In 1936, Shannon began his graduate studies in [[electrical engineering]] at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), where he worked on [[Vannevar Bush]]'s [[differential analyzer]], which was an early [[analog computer]] that was composed of electromechanical parts and could solve [[differential equation]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Claude_E._Shannon |title=Claude E. Shannon, an oral history |first=Robert|last=Price |work=IEEE Global History Network |year=1982 |publisher=IEEE |access-date=July 14, 2011}}</ref> While studying the complicated ''ad hoc'' circuits of this analyzer, Shannon designed [[switching circuit]]s based on [[Boolean algebra|Boole's concepts]]. In 1937, he wrote his [[master's degree]] thesis, ''[[A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits]],''<ref name="SymbolicAnalysis">{{ cite journal
|last = Shannon
|first = C. E.
|title = A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits
|journal = Trans. AIEE
|year = 1938
|volume = 57 |issue=12
|pages = 713–723
|doi= 10.1109/T-AIEE.1938.5057767
|hdl = 1721.1/11173
|s2cid = 51638483
|hdl-access = free
}}</ref> with a paper from this thesis published in 1938.<ref name="SymbolicAnalysis"/> A revolutionary work for [[switching circuit theory]], Shannon diagramed switching circuits that could implement the essential operators of [[Boolean algebra (logic)|Boolean algebra]]. Then he proved that his switching circuits could be used to simplify the arrangement of the [[electromechanical]] [[relay]]s that were used during that time in [[public switched telephone network|telephone call routing switches]]. Next, he expanded this concept, proving that these circuits could solve all problems that Boolean algebra could solve. In the last chapter, he presented diagrams of several circuits, including a digital 4-bit full adder.<ref name="SymbolicAnalysis" /> His work differed significantly from the work of previous engineers such as [[Akira Nakashima]], who still relied on the existent circuit theory of the time and took a grounded approach.<ref name=":03">{{Cite journal |last=Kawanishi |first=Toma |date=2019 |title=Prehistory of Switching Theory in Japan: Akira Nakashima and His Relay-circuit Theory |url=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/historiascientiarum/29/1/29_136/_article |journal=Historia Scientiarum |series=Second Series |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=136–162 |doi=10.34336/historiascientiarum.29.1_136}}</ref> Shannon's idea were more abstract and relied on mathematics, thereby breaking new ground with his work, with his approach dominating modern-day electrical engineering.<ref name=":03" />

Using electrical switches to implement logic is the fundamental concept that underlies all [[Computer|electronic digital computers]]. Shannon's work became the foundation of [[digital circuit]] design, as it became widely known in the electrical engineering community during and after [[World War II]]. The theoretical rigor of Shannon's work superseded the ''ad hoc'' methods that had prevailed previously. [[Howard Gardner]] hailed Shannon's thesis "possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution |first=Howard |last=Gardner |author-link=Howard Gardner |publisher=Basic Books |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-465-04635-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mindsnewscience00howa/page/144 144] |url=https://archive.org/details/mindsnewscience00howa/page/144 }}</ref> [[Herman Goldstine]] described it as "surely ... one of the most important master's theses ever written ... It helped to change digital circuit design from an art to a science."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldstine |first=Herman H. |author-link=Herman Goldstine |url=https://monoskop.org/images/f/fc/Goldstine_Herman_H_The_Computer_from_Pascal_to_von_Neumann.pdf |title=The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-691-08104-5 |location=Princeton, N.J. |pages=119–120 |language=en}}</ref> One of the reviewers of his work commented that "To the best of my knowledge, this is the first application of the methods of symbolic logic to so practical an engineering problem. From the point of view of originality I rate the paper as outstanding."<ref name=":02">{{Cite thesis |last=Guizzo |first=Erico Marui |date=2003 |title=The Essential Message: Claude Shannon and the Making of Information Theory |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4404094.pdf |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |pages=12 |access-date=29 July 2024 |degree=Master of Science}}</ref> Shannon's master's thesis won the [[Alfred Noble Prize#Recipients|1939 Alfred Noble Prize]].

Shannon received his PhD in mathematics from MIT in 1940.<ref name="MIT obituary"/> Vannevar Bush had suggested that Shannon should work on his dissertation at the [[Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory]], in order to develop a mathematical formulation for [[Gregor Mendel|Mendelian]] [[genetics]]. This research resulted in Shannon's PhD thesis, called ''An Algebra for Theoretical Genetics''.<ref>{{cite thesis|hdl=1721.1/11174|title=An Algebra for Theoretical Genetics|year=1940|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|type=Thesis|last1=Shannon|first1=Claude Elwood}} — Contains a biography on pp. 64–65.</ref> However, the thesis went unpublished after Shannon lost interest, but it did contain important results.<ref name=":11" /> Notably, he was one of the first to apply an algebraic framework to study theoretical population genetics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chalub |first1=Fabio A. C. C. |last2=Souza |first2=Max O. |date=2017-12-01 |title=On the stochastic evolution of finite populations |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s00285-017-1135-4 |journal=Journal of Mathematical Biology |language=en |volume=75 |issue=6 |pages=1735–1774 |doi=10.1007/s00285-017-1135-4 |pmid=28493042 |issn=1432-1416|arxiv=1602.00478 }}</ref> In addition, Shannon devised a general expression for the distribution of several linked traits in a population after multiple generations under a random mating system, which was original at the time,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hanus |first1=Pavol |last2=Goebel |first2=Bernhard |last3=Dingel |first3=Janis |last4=Weindl |first4=Johanna |last5=Zech |first5=Juergen |last6=Dawy |first6=Zaher |last7=Hagenauer |first7=Joachim |last8=Mueller |first8=Jakob C. |date=2007-11-27 |title=Information and communication theory in molecular biology |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00202-007-0062-6 |journal=Electrical Engineering |language=en |volume=90 |issue=2 |pages=161–173 |doi=10.1007/s00202-007-0062-6 |issn=0948-7921}}</ref> with the new theorem unworked out by other [[Population genetics|population geneticists]] of the time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pachter |first=Lior |author-link=Lior Pachter |date=2013-11-06 |title=Claude Shannon, population geneticist |url=https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/claude-shannon-population-geneticist/ |access-date=2024-07-29 |website=Bits of DNA |language=en}}</ref>

In 1940, Shannon became a National Research Fellow at the [[Institute for Advanced Study]] in [[Princeton, New Jersey]]. In Princeton, Shannon had the opportunity to discuss his ideas with influential scientists and [[mathematician]]s such as [[Hermann Weyl]] and [[John von Neumann]], and he also had occasional encounters with [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Kurt Gödel]]. Shannon worked freely across disciplines, and this ability may have contributed to his later development of mathematical information theory.<ref>{{cite thesis|hdl=1721.1/39429|title=The Essential Message: Claude Shannon and the Making of Information Theory|year=2003|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|type=Thesis|last1=Guizzo|first1=Erico Marui}}</ref>

===Wartime research===
Shannon had worked at [[Bell Labs]] for a few months in the summer of 1937,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gertner |first=Jon |title=The idea factory: Bell Labs and the great age of American innovation |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-312279-1 |location=London |pages=118}}</ref> and returned there to work on [[fire-control system]]s and [[cryptography]] during [[World War II]], under a contract with section D-2 (Control Systems section) of the [[National Defense Research Committee]] (NDRC).

Shannon is credited with the invention of [[signal-flow graph]]s, in 1942. He discovered the topological gain formula while investigating the functional operation of an analog computer.<ref>{{Cite book|title = NASAP-70 User's and Programmer's manual|last1 = Okrent|first1 = Howard|publisher = School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of California at Los Angeles|year = 1970|location = Los Angeles, California|pages = 3–9|first2 = Lawrence P.|last2 = McNamee|url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19710025849|chapter-url = https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710025849.pdf|chapter = 3. 3 Flowgraph Theory|access-date = March 4, 2016}}</ref>

For two months early in 1943, Shannon came into contact with the leading British mathematician [[Alan Turing]]. Turing had been posted to Washington to share with the [[U.S. Navy]]'s cryptanalytic service the methods used by the [[Government Code and Cypher School]] at [[Bletchley Park]] to break the cyphers used by the ''[[Kriegsmarine]]'' [[U-boat]]s in the north [[Atlantic Ocean]].<ref name=Hodges1992>{{Citation | last = Hodges | first = Andrew | author-link = Andrew Hodges | year = 1992 | title = Alan Turing: The Enigma | location = London | publisher = [[Vintage Books|Vintage]] | pages = 243–252 | isbn = 978-0-09-911641-7}}</ref> He was also interested in the encipherment of speech and to this end spent time at Bell Labs. Shannon and Turing met at teatime in the cafeteria.<ref name=Hodges1992 /> Turing showed Shannon his 1936 paper that defined what is now known as the "[[universal Turing machine]]".<ref>{{Citation | last= Turing | first= A.M. | publication-date = 1937 | year = 1936 | title = On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem | periodical = Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society | series = 2 | volume = 42 | pages = 230–65 | doi= 10.1112/plms/s2-42.1.230 | s2cid= 73712 }}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Turing | first = A.M. | publication-date = 1937 | title = On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem: A correction | periodical = Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society | series = 2 | volume = 43 | pages = 544–6 | doi = 10.1112/plms/s2-43.6.544 | year = 1938 | issue = 6 }}</ref> This impressed Shannon, as many of its ideas complemented his own.

Shannon and his team developed anti-aircraft systems that tracked enemy missiles and planes, while also determining the paths for intercepting missiles.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=58ySAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |title=Computing: A Historical and Technical Perspective |date=2014 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4822-2741-3 |editor-last=Igarashi |editor-first=Yoshihide |edition= |location=Boca Raton, Florida |pages=183}}</ref>

In 1945, as the war was coming to an end, the NDRC was issuing a summary of technical reports as a last step prior to its eventual closing down. Inside the volume on fire control, a special essay titled ''Data Smoothing and Prediction in Fire-Control Systems'', coauthored by Shannon, [[Ralph Beebe Blackman]], and [[Hendrik Wade Bode]], formally treated the problem of smoothing the data in fire-control by analogy with "the problem of separating a signal from interfering noise in communications systems."<ref>{{cite book|isbn=0801880572|pages=319–320|title=Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing Before Cybernetics|last1=Mindell|first1=David A.|date=October 15, 2004|publisher=JHU Press }}</ref> In other words, it modeled the problem in terms of [[Data processing|data]] and [[signal processing]] and thus heralded the coming of the [[Information Age]].

Shannon's work on cryptography was even more closely related to his later publications on [[communication theory]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Kahn |first=David |author-link=David Kahn (writer) |title=The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet |title-link=The Codebreakers |date=1966 |publisher=Macmillan and Sons |isbn=0684831309 |pages=743–751}}</ref> At the close of the war, he prepared a classified memorandum for [[Bell Telephone Labs]] entitled "A Mathematical Theory of Cryptography", dated September 1945. A declassified version of this paper was published in 1949 as "[[Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems]]" in the ''[[Bell System Technical Journal]]''. This paper incorporated many of the concepts and mathematical formulations that also appeared in his ''[[A Mathematical Theory of Communication]]''. Shannon said that his wartime insights into communication theory and cryptography developed simultaneously, and that "they were so close together you couldn't separate them".<ref>quoted in Kahn, ''The Codebreakers'', p. 744.</ref> In a footnote near the beginning of the classified report, Shannon announced his intention to "develop these results … in a forthcoming memorandum on the transmission of information."<ref>Quoted in Erico Marui Guizzo, [http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/39429/1/54526133.pdf "The Essential Message: Claude Shannon and the Making of Information Theory"], {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528182200/http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/1721.1/39429/1/54526133.pdf |date=May 28, 2008 }} unpublished MS thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003, p. 21.</ref>

While he was at Bell Labs, Shannon proved that the [[cryptographic]] [[one-time pad]] is unbreakable in his classified research that was later published in 1949. The same article also proved that any unbreakable system must have essentially the same characteristics as the one-time pad: the key must be truly random, as large as the plaintext, never reused in whole or part, and kept secret.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb00928.x|title=Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems|year=1949|last1=Shannon|first1=C. E.|journal=Bell System Technical Journal|volume=28|issue=4|pages=656–715}}</ref>

===Information theory===
In 1948, the promised memorandum appeared as "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", an article in two parts in the July and October issues of the ''Bell System Technical Journal''. This work focuses on the problem of how best to encode the message a sender wants to transmit. Shannon developed [[information entropy]] as a measure of the [[information]] content in a message, which is a measure of uncertainty reduced by the message. In so doing, he essentially invented the field of [[information theory]].

The book ''The Mathematical Theory of Communication''<ref name=":0" /> reprints Shannon's 1948 article and [[Warren Weaver]]'s popularization of it, which is accessible to the non-specialist. Weaver pointed out that the word "information" in communication theory is not related to what you do say, but to what you could say. That is, information is a measure of one's freedom of choice when one selects a message. Shannon's concepts were also popularized, subject to his own proofreading, in [[John Robinson Pierce]]'s ''Symbols, Signals, and Noise''.

Information theory's fundamental contribution to [[natural language processing]] and [[computational linguistics]] was further established in 1951, in his article "Prediction and Entropy of Printed English", showing upper and lower bounds of entropy on the statistics of English – giving a statistical foundation to language analysis. In addition, he proved that treating [[space (punctuation)|space]] as the 27th letter of the alphabet actually lowers uncertainty in written language, providing a clear quantifiable link between cultural practice and probabilistic cognition.

Another notable paper published in 1949 is "[[Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems]]", a declassified version of his wartime work on the mathematical theory of cryptography, in which he proved that all theoretically unbreakable cyphers must have the same requirements as the one-time pad. He is credited with the introduction of [[Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem|sampling theorem]], which he had derived as early as 1940,<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Stanković |first1=Raromir S. |last2=Astola |first2=Jaakko T. |last3=Karpovsky |first3=Mark G. |date=September 2006 |title=Some Historic Remarks On Sampling Theorem |url=https://sites.bu.edu/mark/files/2018/02/196.pdf |conference=Proceedings of the 2006 International TICSP Workshop on Spectral Methods and Multirate Signal Processing}}</ref> and which is concerned with representing a continuous-time signal from a (uniform) discrete set of samples. This theory was essential in enabling telecommunications to move from analog to digital transmissions systems in the 1960s and later. He further wrote a paper in 1956 regarding coding for a noisy channel, which also became a classic paper in the field of information theory.<ref name=":16" /> However, also in 1956 he wrote a one-page editorial for the "IRE Transactions on Information Theory" entitled "The Bandwagon" which he began by observing: "Information theory has, in the last few years, become something of a scientific bandwagon" and which he concluded by warning: "Only by maintaining a thoroughly scientific attitude can we achieve real progress in communication theory and consolidate our present position."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shannon |first1=Claude E. |title=The Bandwagon |journal=IRE Transactions on Information Theory |date=1956 |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=3 |doi=10.1109/TIT.1956.1056774 |url=https://www.jonglage.net/theorie/notation/siteswap-avancee/refs/books/Claude%20Shannon%20-%20Collected%20Papers.pdf |access-date=18 February 2025}}</ref>

Claude Shannon's influence has been immense in the field, for example, in a 1973 collection of the key papers in the field of information theory, he was author or coauthor of 12 of the 49 papers cited, while no one else appeared more than three times.<ref name=":19">{{Cite book |last=McEliece |first=Robert J. |author-link=Robert McEliece |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bQ9fWH7fh3IC |title=The Theory of Information and Coding |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83185-7 |edition=Student |series= |location=Cambridge |pages=13 |language=en}}</ref> Even beyond his original paper in 1948, he is still regarded as the most important post-1948 contributor to the theory.<ref name=":19" />

In May 1951, [[Mervin Kelly]] received a request from the director of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], general [[Walter Bedell Smith]], regarding Shannon and the need for him, as Shannon was regarded as, based on "the best authority", the "most eminently qualified scientist in the particular field concerned".<ref name="Soni Goodman 2017 p. 63">{{cite book |last1=Soni |first1=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gygsDwAAQBAJ&dq=special+cryptologic+advisory+group+claude+shannon&pg=PA196 |title=A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age |last2=Goodman |first2=R. |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4767-6668-3 |pages=193–198 |language=en |access-date=}}</ref> As a result of the request, Shannon became part of the CIA's Special Cryptologic Advisory Group or SCAG.<ref name="Soni Goodman 2017 p. 63" />

In his time at Bell Labs, he also co-developed [[pulse-code modulation]] alongside [[Bernard M. Oliver]], and [[John R. Pierce]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noll |first=A. Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpkuAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA50 |title=Highway of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information Superhighway |date=1997 |publisher=Erlbaum |isbn=978-0-8058-2557-2 |edition=Revised |series=Telecommunications |location=Mahwah, NJ |pages=50 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Barrett |first=G. Douglas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9-SEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA102 |title=Experimenting the Human: Art, Music, and the Contemporary Posthuman |publisher=[[The University of Chicago Press]] |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-226-82340-9 |location=Chicago London |pages=102 |language=en}}</ref>

===Artificial Intelligence===
In 1950, Shannon designed and built, with the help of his wife, a learning machine named Theseus. It consisted of a maze on a surface, through which a mechanical mouse could move. Below the surface were sensors that followed the path of a mechanical mouse through the maze. After much trial and error, this device would learn the shortest path through the maze, and direct the mechanical mouse through the maze. The pattern of the maze could be changed at will.<ref name="MIT" />

[[Mazin Gilbert]] stated that Theseus "inspired the whole field of AI. This random trial and error is the foundation of artificial intelligence."<ref name="MIT">{{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=Daniel |date=2019 |editor1-last=Dragoon |editor1-first=aLICE |title=Mighty mouse |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/12/19/138508/mighty-mouse/ |journal=MIT News |language=English |location=Cambridge Massachusetts |publisher=MIT Technology Review |issue=January/February |pages=6–7}}</ref>

Shannon wrote multiple influential papers on artificial intelligence, such as his 1950 paper titled "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess", and his 1953 paper titled "Computers and Automata".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cordeschi |first=Roberto |date=2007-04-25 |title=AI Turns Fifty: Revisiting ITS Origins |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08839510701252304 |journal=Applied Artificial Intelligence |language=en |volume=21 |issue=4–5 |pages=259–279 |doi=10.1080/08839510701252304 |issn=0883-9514}}</ref> Alongside [[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]], he co-edited a book titled ''Automata Studies'', which was published in 1956.<ref name=":16">{{Cite journal |last=Kline |first=Ronald |date=2011 |title=Cybernetics, Automata Studies, and the Dartmouth Conference on Artificial Intelligence |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5477410 |journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1109/MAHC.2010.44 |issn=1058-6180}}</ref> The categories in the articles within the volume were influenced by Shannon's own subject headings in his 1953 paper.<ref name=":16" /> Shannon shared McCarthy's goal of creating a science of intelligent machines, but also held a broader view of viable approaches in automata studies, such as neural nets, Turing machines, cybernetic mechanisms, and symbolic processing by computer.<ref name=":16" />

Shannon co-organized and participated in the [[Dartmouth workshop]] of 1956, alongside John McCarthy, [[Marvin Minsky]] and [[Nathaniel Rochester (computer scientist)|Nathaniel Rochester]], and which is considered the founding event of the field of artificial intelligence.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McCarthy |first1=John |last2=Minsky |first2=Marvin L. |last3=Rochester |first3=Nathaniel |last4=Shannon |first4=Claude E. |date=2006-12-15 |title=A Proposal for the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence, August 31, 1955 |url=https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/1904 |journal=AI Magazine |language=en |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=12 |doi=10.1609/aimag.v27i4.1904 |issn=2371-9621}}</ref><ref name="Solomonoff"/>

===Teaching at MIT===
In 1956 Shannon joined the MIT faculty, holding an endowed chair. He worked in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). He continued to serve on the MIT faculty until 1978.

===Later life===
Shannon developed [[Alzheimer's disease]] and spent the last few years of his life in a [[nursing home]]; he died in 2001, survived by his wife, a son and daughter, and two granddaughters.<ref name =SW>{{cite web| url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Shannon.html | title=Shannon, Claude Elwood (1916–2001) | first=Eric | last=Weisstein | work=World of Scientific Biography | publisher=[[Wolfram Research]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.thocp.net/biographies/shannon_claude.htm | title=Claude Shannon – computer science theory | work=www.thocp.net | publisher=The History of Computing Project | access-date=December 9, 2016}}</ref>

=== Hobbies and inventions ===

[[File:Minivac 601.jpg|thumb|The [[Minivac 601]], a digital computer trainer designed by Shannon]]

Outside of Shannon's academic pursuits, he was interested in [[juggling]], [[unicycling]], and [[chess]]. He also invented many devices, including a [[Roman numeral]] computer called THROBAC, and [[robot juggling|juggling machines]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://webmuseum.mit.edu/detail.php?module=people&type=related&kv=12372 | title=People: Shannon, Claude Elwood | publisher=[[MIT Museum]] | access-date=December 9, 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Boehm |first=George A. W. |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_computers-and-people_1953-03_2_2/page/n4/ |title=Computers and Automation 1953-03: Vol 2 Iss 2 |date=1953-03-01 |publisher=Berkeley Enterprises |others=Internet Archive |pages=1–4 |language=en |chapter=GYPSY, MODEL VI, CLAUDE SHANNON, NIMWIT, AND THE MOUSE}}</ref> He built a device that could solve the [[Rubik's Cube]] puzzle.<ref name="MIT obituary"/>

Shannon also invented flame-throwing [[trumpet]]s, rocket-powered [[frisbee]]s, and plastic foam [[shoe]]s for navigating a lake, and which to an observer, would appear as if Shannon was walking on water.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Cavanaugh |first=Ray |date=2016-04-29 |title=Claude Shannon: The Juggling Unicyclist Who Pedaled Us Into the Digital Age |url=https://time.com/4311107/claude-shannon-100-years/ |access-date=2024-10-15 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref>

Shannon designed the [[Minivac 601]], a [[digital computer]] trainer to teach business people about how computers functioned. It was sold by the [[Scientific Development Corp]] starting in 1961.<ref name="PS6110">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCEDAAAAMBAJ&dq=Minivac+601&pg=PA33|title=Advertisement: Minivac 601|date=October 1961|page=33}}</ref>

He is further considered the co-inventor of the first [[wearable computer]] along with [[Edward O. Thorp]].<ref name="Wearable computer">{{cite book|last=Thorp|first=Edward|title=Digest of Papers. Second International Symposium on Wearable Computers (Cat. No.98EX215) |chapter=The invention of the first wearable computer |date=October 1998|pages=4–8|s2cid=1526|doi=10.1109/iswc.1998.729523|isbn=0-8186-9074-7}}</ref> The device was used to improve the odds when playing [[roulette]].

===Personal life===

Shannon married [[Norma Barzman|Norma Levor]], a wealthy, Jewish, left-wing intellectual in January 1940. The marriage ended in divorce a year later. Levor later married [[Ben Barzman]].<ref name=SoniGoodman>{{cite book 
| author = Jimmy Soni
| author2 = Rob Goodman
| title = A Mind At Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
| publisher = Simon and Schuster
| year = 2017
| pages = 63, 80 | author-link = Jimmy Soni
}}</ref>

Shannon met his second wife, [[Betty Shannon|Mary Elizabeth Moore]] (Betty), when she was a numerical analyst at Bell Labs. They were married in 1949.<ref name=SW /> Betty assisted Claude in building some of his most famous inventions.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/betty-shannon-unsung-mathematical-genius/|title=Betty Shannon, Unsung Mathematical Genius|work=Scientific American Blog Network|access-date=2017-07-26|language=en}}</ref>  They had three children.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Horgan |first1=John |title=Claude Shannon: Tinkerer, Prankster, and Father of Information Theory |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/claude-shannon-tinkerer-prankster-and-father-of-information-theory |website=IEEE Spectrum |date=April 27, 2016 |access-date=19 June 2020}}</ref>

Shannon presented himself as [[Apoliticism|apolitical]] and an [[Atheism|atheist]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System|year=2010|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-374-70708-8|page=18|author=William Poundstone|quote=Shannon described himself as an atheist and was outwardly apolitical.}}<!--|access-date=July 13, 2013--></ref>

===Tributes and legacy===
[[File:AT&T Claude Shannon Statue.jpg|thumb|Statue of Claude Shannon at AT&T Shannon Labs]]
There are six statues of Shannon sculpted by [[Eugene Daub]]: one at the [[University of Michigan]]; one at MIT in the [[MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems|Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems]]; one in Gaylord, Michigan; one at the [[University of California, San Diego]]; one at Bell Labs; and another at [[AT&T Laboratories|AT&T Shannon Labs]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eecs.umich.edu/shannonstatue/|title=Claude Shannon Statue Dedications|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100731230211/http://www.eecs.umich.edu/shannonstatue/|archive-date=July 31, 2010|df=mdy-all}}</ref> The statue in Gaylord is located in the Claude Shannon Memorial Park.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://travelthemitten.com/roadside-attractions/michigan-roadside-attractions-claude-shannon-park-and-memorial-gaylord/ |title=Michigan Roadside Attractions: Claude Shannon Park, Gaylord |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=11 August 2018 |website=Travel the Mitten |publisher=TravelTheMitten.com |access-date=8 September 2022|quote=Gaylord, Michigan is home to a small park honoring Claude Shannon…}}</ref> After the [[breakup of the Bell System]], the part of Bell Labs that remained with [[AT&T Corporation]] was named Shannon Labs in his honor.

In June 1954, Shannon was listed as one of the top 20 most important scientists in America by ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]''.<ref name="Soni Goodman 2017 p. 62">{{cite book |last1=Soni |first1=J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gygsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA188 |title=A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age |last2=Goodman |first2=R. |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4767-6668-3 |page=188 |access-date=}}</ref> In 2013, information theory was listed as one of the top 10 revolutionary scientific theories by ''[[Science News]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Siegfried |first=Tom |date=2013-11-13 |title=Top 10 revolutionary scientific theories |url=https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/top-10-revolutionary-scientific-theories |access-date=2024-11-05 |work=[[Science News]]}}</ref>

According to [[Neil Sloane]], an [[AT&T Fellow]] who co-edited Shannon's large collection of papers in 1993, the perspective introduced by Shannon's communication theory (now called "information theory") is the foundation of the [[Digital Revolution|digital revolution]], and every device containing a [[microprocessor]] or [[microcontroller]] is a conceptual descendant of Shannon's publication in 1948:<ref name="shannon paper">{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x|title=A mathematical theory of communication|year=1948|pages=379–423, 623–656|last1=Shannon|first1=C. E.|journal=Bell System Technical Journal|volume=27|issue=3}}</ref> "He's one of the great men of the century. Without him, none of the things we know today would exist. The whole digital revolution started with him."<ref name="star ledger">{{cite news|title=Bell Labs digital guru dead at 84— Pioneer scientist led high-tech revolution|newspaper=The Star-Ledger|first=Kevin|last=Coughlin|date=February 27, 2001}}</ref> The [[cryptocurrency]] unit [[shannon (unit)|shannon]] (a synonym for gwei) is named after him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gwei-ethereum.asp|title=Gwei|website=Investopedia}}</ref>

Shannon is credited by many as single-handedly creating information theory and for laying the foundations for the [[Information Age|Digital Age]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-03-12 |title=Claude Shannon |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1326008/Claude-Shannon.html |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Calderbank |first1=Robert |last2=Sloane |first2=Neil J. A. |date=2001-04-12 |title=Claude Shannon (1916–2001) |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/35071223 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=410 |issue=6830 |pages=768 |doi=10.1038/35071223 |pmid=11298432 |issn=1476-4687}}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Gallager |first=Robert G. |date=2001 |title=Claude E. Shannon: A Retrospective on His Life, Work, and Impact |url=https://mast.queensu.ca/~math474/gallager-on-shannon-it2001.pdf |journal=IEEE Transactions on Information Theory |volume=47 |issue=7|pages=2681–2695 |doi=10.1109/18.959253 }}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite thesis |last=Guizzo |first=Erico Marui |date=2003 |title=The Essential Message: Claude Shannon and the Making of Information Theory |url=https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39429 |access-date=11 January 2024 |degree=Master's |publisher=University of Sao Paulo|hdl=1721.1/39429 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Collins |first=Graham P. |date=2002-10-14 |title=Claude E. Shannon: Founder of Information Theory |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/claude-e-shannon-founder/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Scientific American |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

His achievements are considered to be on par with those of [[Albert Einstein]], [[Isaac Newton|Sir Isaac Newton]], and [[Charles Darwin]].<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Fortune2" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":14">{{Cite journal |last=Rutledge |first=Tom |date=2017-08-16 |title=The Man Who Invented Information Theory |url=https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/just-add-meaning-claude-shannons-information-theory-rubric-good-communication/ |journal=Boston Review |access-date=2023-10-31}}</ref>

The artificial intelligence [[large language model]] family [[Claude (language model)]] was named in Shannon's honor.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Roose |first=Kevin |date=2023-07-11 |title=Inside the White-Hot Center of A.I. Doomerism |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/technology/anthropic-ai-claude-chatbot.html |access-date=2025-03-01 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

''[[A Mind at Play]]'', a biography of Shannon written by [[Jimmy Soni]] and Rob Goodman, was published in 2017.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-elegance-of-ones-and-zeroes-1500667513 | title =  The Elegance of Ones and Zeroes | date= 21 July 2017 | access-date = 15 August 2017 | newspaper = Wall Street Journal | author = George Dyson }}</ref> They described Shannon as "the most important genius you’ve never heard of, a man whose intellect was on par with [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Isaac Newton]]".<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Soni |first1=Jimmy |last2=Goodman |first2=Rob |date=2017-08-01 |title=10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon: How a Genius Thinks, Works and Lives |url=https://observer.com/2017/08/10000-hours-with-claude-shannon-how-genius-thinks-works-lives-a-mind-at-play-bell-labs/ |access-date=2023-10-31 |website=Observer}}</ref> Consultant and writer Tom Rutledge, writing for [[Boston Review]], stated that "Of the computer pioneers who drove the mid-20th-century information technology revolution—an elite men’s club of scholar-engineers who also helped crack Nazi codes and pinpoint missile trajectories—Shannon may have been the most brilliant of them all."<ref name=":14" /> Electrical engineer [[Robert G. Gallager|Robert Gallager]] stated about Shannon that "He had this amazing clarity of vision. Einstein had it, too – this ability to take on a complicated problem and find the right way to look at it, so that things become very simple."<ref name=":15" /> In an obituary by Neil Sloane and [[Robert Calderbank]], they stated that "Shannon must rank near the top of the list of major figures of twentieth century science".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Calderbank |first1=Robert |last2=Sloane |first2=Neil J. A. |date=2001 |title=Claude Shannon (1916–2001) |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/35071223 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=410 |issue=6830 |pages=768 |doi=10.1038/35071223 |pmid=11298432 |issn=0028-0836}}</ref> Due to his work in multiple fields, Shannon is also regarded as a [[polymath]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Goodman |first1=Rob |last2=Soni |first2=Jimmy |date=2017-08-30 |title=How a polymath transformed our understanding of information |url=https://aeon.co/essays/how-a-polymath-transformed-our-understanding-of-information |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Aeon |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Guldi |first=Jo |title=The Dangerous Art of Text Mining: A Methodology for Digital History |date=2023 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-26298-9 |location=Cambridge |pages=144–145 |language=en}}</ref>

Historian [[James Gleick]] noted the importance of Shannon, stating that "Einstein looms large, and rightly so. But we’re not living in the relativity age, we’re living in the information age. It’s Shannon whose fingerprints are on every electronic device we own, every computer screen we gaze into, every means of digital communication. He’s one of these people who so transform the world that, after the transformation, the old world is forgotten."<ref name=":8" /> Gleick further noted that "he created a whole field from scratch, from the brow of [[Zeus]]".<ref name=":8" />

On April 30, 2016, Shannon was honored with a [[Google Doodle]] to celebrate his life on what would have been his 100th birthday.<ref>[https://doodles.google/doodle/claude-shannons-100th-birthday/ Claude Shannon’s 100th birthday] Google, 2016</ref><ref name="Time">{{cite magazine|author1=Katie Reilly|title=Google Doodle Honors Mathematician-Juggler Claude Shannon|url=https://time.com/4313341/google-doodle-claude-shannon/|magazine=Time|date=April 30, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Tech Times">{{cite news|author1=Menchie Mendoza|title=Google Doodle Celebrates 100th Birthday Of Claude Shannon, Father Of Information Theory|url=http://www.techtimes.com/articles/155386/20160502/google-doodle-celebrates-100th-birthday-of-claude-shannon-father-of-information-theory.htm|publisher=Tech Times|date=2 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="Fortune (magazine)">{{cite magazine|author1=David Z. Morris|title=Google Celebrates 100th Birthday of Claude Shannon, the Inventor of the Bit|url=http://fortune.com/2016/04/30/google-claude-shannon-bit-inventor/|magazine=[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]|date=April 30, 2016}}</ref>

''[[The Bit Player]]'', a feature film about Shannon directed by [[Mark Levinson (film director)|Mark Levinson]] premiered at the [[World Science Festival]] in 2019.<ref name="physicstoday">{{cite journal |last1=Feder |first1=Toni |title=Review: The Bit Player, an homage to Claude Shannon |url=https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190719a/full/ |journal=[[Physics Today]] | date = July 19, 2019 |issue=7 |page=5159 |doi=10.1063/PT.6.3.20190719a |bibcode=2019PhT..2019g5159F |s2cid=243548904 |access-date=3 August 2019}}</ref> Drawn from interviews conducted with Shannon in his house in the 1980s, the film was released on Amazon Prime in August 2020.