Mind at Play

How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age

by Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman

No cover — Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman: Mind at Play (2017, Simon & Schuster)

384 pages

English language

Published Jan. 5, 2017 by Simon & Schuster.

(8 reviews)

"The life and times of one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century: Claude Shannon--the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed a fleet of customized unicycles and a flamethrowing trumpet, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called 'the Magna Carta of the Information Age.' His discoveries would lead contemporaries to compare him to Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. His work anticipated by decades the world we'd be living in today--and gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass. In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman reveal Claude Shannon's full story for the first time. It's the story of a small-town Michigan boy whose career stretched from the era of room-sized computers powered by gears and string to the age of Apple. It's the story of the origins of our digital world in the tunnels of MIT and the 'idea factory' of Bell Labs, in the 'scientists' war' with Nazi Germany, and in the work of Shannon's collaborators and rivals, thinkers like Alan Turing, John von Neumann, Vannevar Bush, and Norbert Wiener. And it's the story of Shannon's life as an often reclusive, always playful genius. With access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and creative genius to life."--Jacket.

2 editions

Kaslov reviewed A Mind At Play by Jimmy Soni

Review of 'A Mind At Play' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Someone like Claude Shannon presents a real challenge to all biographers. For he was important enough to the world of mathematics, communications, computer science and engineering to deserve a biography but has led a quiet and private life to make the job of documenting his life quite difficult. Luckily in his older age he let his eccentricities loose and provided us with quite a number of amusing anecdotes. Even with this challenge the author managed to write a good biography, but it felt a bit padded at places (mostly in the first half of the book).

Now, if you really want to feel a little bit like Claude Shannon, go ahead and solve a few math puzzles just for the sheer joy of it and than proceed to make your own pointless machine (yes it's really called that and he invented it too).

Matthew Royal reviewed A Mind At Play by Jimmy Soni

Review of 'A mind at play' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Reads a bit like a worshipful book report rather than either a tribute or introduction to the man. Nevertheless, it's a good volume, with a lot of information about his personal life and worldview. I'm looking forward to going back through the footnotes and bibliography, which comprise nearly 40% of the book, for additional reading.

Suzanne Aldrich reviewed A Mind At Play by Jimmy Soni

Review of 'A Mind At Play' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Unassuming genius from Midwest invents Information Theory and changes course of History

Engaging biographical account of a humble yet singularly influential scientist who changed the world with his mathematical theory of information which sparked a worldwide revolution of digital communication technologies. Starting with his rural origins, and tracing his evolution as a university student and later working scientist at Bell Labs, we get to become acquainted with anecdotes and writings which reveal a bit more about the inner workings of Claude Shannon's playful mind. In addition to his contributions to digital tech, we learn about his other interests such as chess-playing computers and the physics of juggling, and his incredible tinkering and gadget-making habits, like the maze that solved itself or his wearable roulette wheel quadrant guesser. An enjoyable and inspiring read.