Читать книгу Cryptography, Information Theory, and Error-Correction - Aiden A. Bruen - Страница 18

Claude Shannon has been described as the “father of the information age.” His discoveries are everywhere. Waldrop [Wal01] gives an excellent example from the days, not so long ago, where most people listened to music on CDs, before streaming services became so popular.

Pick up a favorite CD. Now drop it on the floor. Smear it with your fingerprints. Then slide it into the slot on the player‐and listen as the music comes out just as crystal clear as the day you first opened the plastic case. Before moving on with the rest of your day, give a moment of thought to the man whose revolutionary ideas made this miracle possible: Claude Elwood Shannon.

Computers give us the power to process information. But Shannon gave us the capacity to understand and analyze information. Shannon demonstrated the unity of text, pictures, film, radio‐waves, and other types of electronic communication, and showed how to use these media to revolutionize technology and our way of thinking.