A Mind At Play

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).

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.

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.