Claude Shannon: Someone and Something Truly Awesome
The Father of Information Theory and the Digital Computer
It seems odd that the American computing industry became the leading incubator and implementor of anti-white, anti-white-male policies and practices during the early 21st century. After all, it was white men who created the theoretical, mathematical and engineering principles that led to the digital computer. It was white men who took the theory and put it into practice in inventing, designing and building these new digital machines and the entire industry around them. One such man, and perhaps the most brilliant of them all is Claude Shannon.
Shannon, with his towering intellect, made numerous breakthroughs in his career. The first came in 1937 when he was a 21 year old graduate student. Shannon published his thesis, “A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits.” This thesis was the first of many and would come to be described as “possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century”, by Howard Gardner in his book, “The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution.”
Shannon had degrees in both mathematics and electrical engineering. He was familiar with the work of mathematician George Boole, the inventor of Boolean Algebra. At the time that Shannon published his thesis there were only analog computers. His thesis proved that Boole’s algebra could be used to arrange the relays in the existing analog telecom switching systems more efficiently. Unsatisfied with this, Shannon went on to prove that specific arrangements of relays could be used to solve problems in Boolean algebra. Previous ad-hoc attempts had been made to do this, but Shannon’s work was so comprehensive and mathematically sound that it became the entire basis for digital circuit design and the electronic engineering discipline and industry.
Claude Shannon’s dual mathematical/theoretical and engineering expertise and his limitless curiosity and joy for problem solving led him to participate in many leading projects during the initial pioneering phases on the frontiers of digital computing. Shannon was a leading contributor to the fire control system and cryptography teams for America during World War II. He proved that the use of a randomized cryptographic one-time key pad was unbreakable. His work in cryptography and his, “Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems”, made important contributions in pushing the vanguard of cryptography and computer security.
Shannon’s master thesis was so brilliant in its abstraction that he modified it during a tenure at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to create a comprehensive theory of computing for genetics. This culminated in his Phd thesis, “An Algebra for Theoretical Genetics.”
In 1948, Shannon published the work that makes him the father of Information Theory; “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” The theoretical and mathematical precision of his work and his recognition of these abstractions allowed him to apply his ideas to a diverse set of computing problems that includes: genetics/bioinformatics; cryptography; circuit design; digital signal processing; natural language processing, computational linguistics; digital sampling and noise reduction, and more.
If that is not enough, Claude Shannon also:
Invented Shannon’s Number: The widely accepted most accurate number to describe the game-tree complexity of the game of chess.
Thesius Maze: The first ever artificial intelligence and learning device of its kind. A mechanical mouse that could be placed in a maze and learn its environment and find its way out.
Designed and Programmed A Computer To Play Chess
Shannon’s Maxim: A concise statement of Kerchoff’s Principle applied to computer security. Shannon stated it as: “the enemy knows the system.”
Shannon was a mathematician whose work provided the mathematical rigor necessary to be the foundation for an entirely new technology platform. He was also an engineer who tested his theories by designing circuits and computing machines. The greater a person’s ability to abstract their reasoning and yet come up with abstractions that have concrete real world applications, the greater their intellect. It is hard to find a greater intellect based on those characteristics than that of Claude Shannon.
Something strange has happened to the industry that Claude Shannon and his best contemporaries gave birth to. In the past fifteen years it seems like the question it is most interested in is, how can we increase, “diversity”, in STEM? I’ve never heard anyone ask, “Why do we need diversity?” I have never heard a straight answer or explanation for why we need diversity. In a time where a lot of software engineering talent is on the street looking for work, I recently saw a LinkedIn profile where a hiring company was reserving roles exclusively for female applicants. The stated goal was to create more women in STEM. Talk about not understanding supply and demand.
I suspect that the reason why the diversity question is always dodged is because diversity is a code word for fewer white men. It is a mask that presents itself as benevolence but that in fact is avarice against men of European descent. I wonder when the industry will turn back toward more interesting questions. Perhaps we could get more theoretical breakthroughs if it asked, “How can we get more Claude Shannon’s?” Of course, managers hate this kind of question. This is because genius is emergent and managers as a rule are mediocre and fear brilliance. Above all they are deathly afraid of the emergent because it means something good happened outside of their purview of planning and control. I suspect we may get more Claude Shannons when we start asking, “How can we get rid of useless managers and the diversity sinecures whose entire project seeks to prevent the rise of more Claude Shannons?”
In the meantime, we muddle along. One of the signs of a civilization in decay and that it is circling the drain is the widespread overuse and misuse of superlatives. Mediocrity and banality goes around describing mediocrity and banality with unfitting superlatives. We hear it every day. ‘That burrito is, like, so awesome.’ ‘That Christmas sweater is totally amazing!’ Someone repeats a cliche and is lauded with, “Oh my God that was totally genius!”
Claude Shannon’s intellect was truly awesome. In fact, I would go even further and say it was titanic. Today I am grateful for this giant of our recent past. I stand with a sincere and profound awe as I salute the passion, curiosity and rigor of the epic and towering brilliance of Claude Shannon and his intellect.
The reason that you'll never get a straight answer as to why we "need" more diversity among programmers is that the real answer is embarrassing. Those who have failed to compete are embarrassed by their failure. This creates resentment against those who are provably more competent, and a desire to hurt them:
"Man would fain be great and sees that he is little; would fain be happy and sees that he is miserable; would fain be perfect and sees that he is full of imperfections; would fain be the object of the love and esteem of men, and sees that his faults merit only their aversion and contempt. The embarrassment wherein he finds himself produces in him the most unjust and criminal passions imaginable, for he conceives a mortal hatred against that truth which blames him and convinces him of his faults." - Pascal
Programming is one field in which no one cares about your sex or race at all. Competence is the only thing that matters. This is why it's full of spergy white and Asian men. They are objectively the most competent at it.
On the bright side, we might consider that the ceaseless chattering of the woke mob has increased the Shannon entropy of the web considerably and thereby increased its information content. It is unfortunate, however, that Shannon gave us no theory for sorting information on the basis of its usefulness to humanity.