Claude Shannon

Claude Shannon established a mathematical theory of communication that separated information from the particular meaning of a message. He represented uncertainty using entropy and showed how channel capacity, noise, compression, and error correction could be analysed in a common framework. The theory applies whether symbols travel through a wire, radio link, optical fibre, or storage medium.

Earlier, Shannon’s master’s thesis connected Boolean algebra with switching circuits, providing a foundation for digital logic design. His later work ranged across cryptography, probability, chess-playing machines, and playful mechanical devices. Information theory does not claim that human meaning can be reduced entirely to bits; it deliberately addresses the reliable representation and transmission of choices. That abstraction became powerful because it revealed limits and design principles shared by many communication systems.