A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age

Rather than limit their characterization of Claude Shannon (1916–2001) to his identity as the father of information theory, Soni, a former editor for the New York Observer and Washington Examiner, and Goodman, who has contributed to Slate, the Atlantic, and other publications (coauthors, Rome's Last Citizen), deftly illustrate how personality, humility, courage, and, above all, curiosity facilitated his historical contributions. In addition to sympathizing with Shannon's awestruck colleagues and starstruck graduate students, readers will come away with a feeling of having gotten to know the man personally. This biography follows its subject from his small-town roots up to his work at the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Defense Research Committee, and Bell Labs. It demonstrates that his triumphs in the fields of engineering, math, biology, and information theory are more frequently discussed than how he accomplished these feats: by treating everything interesting as important, stripping away superfluous details, and intuiting the nature of a problem.