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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.

— Claude Elwood Shannon

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More quotes by Claude Elwood Shannon

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!

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.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Claude Elwood Shannon (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.