Profile of Claude Shannon based on 1989 interview

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
Date: Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 5:02 PM
Subject: Profile of Claude Shannon based on 1989 interview
To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>, John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>


Dave, I thought your list might be interested in this profile of Claude
Shannon, the subject of a new biography. The profile is based on
my extended interview with Shannon in 1989 and includes his thoughts about
AI. Cheers, John Horgan


Profile of Claude Shannon, Inventor of Information Theory



Shannon, a pioneer of artificial intelligence, thought machines can think
but doubted they "would take over.”


Claude Shannon couldn't sit still. We were sitting in the living room of
his home north of Boston, an edifice called Entropy House, and I was trying
to get him to recall how he came up with the theory of information.
Shannon, who is a boyish 73, with a shy grin and snowy hair, was tired of
dwelling on his past. He wanted to show me his gadgets.

Over the mild protests of his wife, Betty, he leapt from his chair and
disappeared into another room. When I caught up with him, he proudly showed
me his seven chess-playing machines, gasoline-powered pogo-stick,
hundred-bladed jackknife, two-seated unicycle and countless other marvels...

The inventor of information theory also invented a rocket-powered Frisbee
and a theory of juggling, and he is still remembered at Bell Labs for
juggling while riding a unicycle through the halls. “I’ve always pursued my
interests without much regard for financial value or value to the world,”
Shannon said cheerfully. “I’ve spent lots of time on totally useless
things.”​...


Continue at
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/profile-of-claude-shannon-inventor-of-information-theory/



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