Claude Shannon
Claude Shannon (1916–2001) was a mathematician and electrical engineer, widely regarded as the father of information theory. His 1948 paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” laid the foundation for the digital age.
High Agency Example
In High Agency in 30 Minutes, Shannon appears as an exemplar of first-principles-thinking: in 1961, he and Ed Thorp built the first-ever wearable computer to hack roulette. Rather than accepting that roulette was a game of pure luck, they reasoned from physics — the ball and wheel obey physical laws, therefore prediction is possible. They improved their odds by 44%.
Connections
- high-agency — Exemplar of “there’s no unsolvable problem”
- first-principles-thinking — Reasoning from physics rather than accepting conventional wisdom
- large-language-models — Shannon’s information theory is foundational to modern AI
Sources
- source—high-agency-in-30-minutes — Roulette hacking anecdote