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Claude Elwood Shannon Quotes

1916–2001 United States

Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American electrical engineer and mathematician, has been called "the father of information theory", and was the founder of practical digital circuit design theory.

United States
Academics
Computer scientists
Engineers
Mathematicians

Also known as: Claude E. Shannon, Claude Shannon, Shannon, Claude Elwood

Random Claude Elwood Shannon quote

5 quotes

I can visualize a time in the future when we will be to robots as dogs are to humans.

A few first rate research papers are preferable to a large number that are poorly conceived or half-finished. The latter are no credit to their writers and a waste of time to their readers.

IRE Transactions on Information Theory (1956)

I am not depressed by it. I am rooting for the machines! I have always been on the machines' side. Ha-ha!

Although perhaps of no practical importance, the question is of theoretical interest, and it is hoped that a satisfactory solution of this problem will act as a wedge in attacking other problems of a similar nature and of greater significance.

This duality can be pursued further and is related to a duality between past and future and the notions of control and knowledge. Thus we may have knowledge of the past but cannot control it; we may control the future but have no knowledge of it.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Claude Elwood Shannon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.