Claude Elwood Shannon, considered the Father of the Information Age, died Saturday, February 24, 2001 at the age of 84. This American mathematical genius prepared the way for our modern digital communications.
Working at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Labs (1941–1972), Shannon visualized, before anyone else, that inexpensive high-speed digital data processing would be possible. He had this unorthodox concept that a string of off-and-on pulses (bits) could be understood to represent words, sounds and images. The invention of the integrated circuit (IC) chip had been possible because of his formulas. He calculated the upper limits of communication rates in telephone channels, then later in optical and wireless communications. The term “bits per second” is a legacy of Claude Shannon.
Robert Gallager, a colleague of his at MIT, says that Dr. Shannon deserves to be included among the 20th Century’s greatest minds, certainly a peer with Einstein. Shannon defined the information age now entering its fifth decade with a long future expected.
“He was one of the great men of our time,” said Neil Sloane, an AT&T fellow who co-edited Shannon's collected works. The whole digital revolution started with him. Without him, none of the things we know today would exist.”
Shannon’s theories are as relevant and accurate now as they were in 1948 when he published his landmark Mathematical Theory of Communication. The importance of his percept is the foundation of the entire digital processing era. Engineers have widely embraced his defining valuations and built upon those as if blueprints had been presented to them.
His life’s work has been praised as “The Magna Cart of the information age.” Genetic engineering, neuroanatomy and computer science used Shannon’s formulas to solve new technical challenges with immediate and far-reaching successes.
In 1948, the largest communications cable in operation was for 1800 simultaneous voice conversations. Twenty-five years later, that number had risen to 230,000. Today, Lucent’s WaveStar system is capable of transmitting 6.4 million conversations, or the equivalent of 90,000 volumes of an encyclopedia in a single second through a single fiber, as thin as a human hair. Shannon calculated that the ultimate information-carrying capacity of one strand of optical fiber might be 100 quadrillion telephone conversations encoded at 64kbps each; (that’s 1 followed by 17 zeros). It’s coming.
Arun Netravali, Executive VP of Research at Bell Labs: “As clever as we are, Shannon shows us we still have a way to go to press up close to the speed limits on information.”
He worked with renown talents like John Pierce, for satellite communications; Harry Nyquist for signal theory; Hendrik Bode on feedback; and George Stibitz who built an early relay computer in 1938. In Shannon’s words: “I just wondered how things were put together.”
Shannon published articles in a variety of disciplines. His master’s study of Boolean algebra with relay and switching circuits in 1938 was fundamentally significant. It establishing the theoretical operation of digital circuits which ultimately lead to modern computers and telecommunications systems.
His work in 1949, “Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems” is credited with transforming cryptography to a science. Most of Dr. Shannon’s pioneering greatness was in mathematics, computing and cryptography. He designed and built the first mechanical mouse-in-a-maze. In 1950 when computers were slow and difficult to program, Shannon wrote a paper, “Programming a Computer for Playing Chess.” Five decades later, IBM’s Deep Blue beat Russian chess master Garry Kasparov.
For mental diversions, Shannon was well know for his frequent after-hours unicycle rides through the Bell Labs hallways, occasionally while juggling.
Claude Shannon retired at age 62 to publish papers and generally enjoy life.
Motivated by curiosity, his formidable intellect diverted to inventing
whimsical things such as a rocket-powered Frisbee and motorized pogo-stick. At
the end, he was battling Alzheimer’s disease. Claude was honored,
respected and will be missed.