1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tex Stuff from how 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hayley and welcome to text Stuff. 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren Folk Oban, and today 4 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:20,479 Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about a an important figure in 5 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 1: tech who often I think is overlooked. H not on purpose, 6 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: it's just he himself was a very kind of conclusive 7 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: is probably the wrong word. They didn't seek the spotlight. 8 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:36,200 Speaker 1: He became a very private person. And also the work 9 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: that he was doing was technical enough in nature that 10 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit less dynamic as explained 11 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:44,400 Speaker 1: to the general public. Yeah, it's a little more tricky 12 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,160 Speaker 1: than saying this person built this thing which changed the world. 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:49,280 Speaker 1: This is the person who came up with the idea 14 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:51,280 Speaker 1: that the things that were built that changed the world 15 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: were built upon Did that make sense, I'd have to 16 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: diagram the sentence. We're talking about Claude Shannon Shannon Folks, 17 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,000 Speaker 1: the father of in anmation theory right, also known as 18 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:07,560 Speaker 1: the father of the electronic communication age, and his full 19 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:12,200 Speaker 1: name Claude Ellwood Shannon. Very important person he's been. He's 20 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:16,120 Speaker 1: been compared to, you know, some some pretty impressive, big, 21 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:21,440 Speaker 1: basic big people like Einstein, Yeah, Einstein being one of them, 22 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:24,320 Speaker 1: and you might say, well, whoa you know Einstein, Like, 23 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: Einstein's name has become synonymous with just the concept of genius, 24 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 1: like to the point where we use it in phrases 25 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: where we're being you know, a little a little condescenating. Yeah, 26 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:38,839 Speaker 1: way to go Einstein, that kind of thing. But as 27 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:41,920 Speaker 1: you'll see when we go through this this episode and 28 00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: explain what Claude Shannon did and his his contributions to technology, 29 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: as well as just kind of his wacky personality, you'll 30 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:54,120 Speaker 1: really kind of see how that that applies. So exactly 31 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: who was he and what did he do? When was 32 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:05,360 Speaker 1: this guy born? He was born in nineteen sixteen in Potaski. Yeah. Yeah, 33 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: his father was a probate judge and his mother was 34 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: a high school principle. He also did have some mildly 35 00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: famous family. A very distant cousin of his kind of 36 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: made a name for himself, Yeah, for killing an elephant 37 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: with electricity, Thomas Edison. He did a few other things too, Yeah, 38 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: that's the requisite doing from the internet. Thomas Edison obviously 39 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,880 Speaker 1: did many, many important things, some of them not remotely 40 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: involving putting an animal to death with electricity. Yeah, thet 41 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: the large majority of which so kill an elephant once. Yeah, 42 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: I know, you just sticks with you right. Well. As 43 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:49,079 Speaker 1: a boy, Claude Shannon became interested in electronics and began 44 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: experimenting with different stuff. He was just curious about how 45 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:55,200 Speaker 1: things work and how to build them himself. He built 46 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: a working model of an airplane. Pretty impressive. Think I 47 00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: think he was born in nineteen sixteen. You didn't have 48 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: airplanes for very long. They were pretty new. Yeah, they 49 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: were brand new back in the early twentieth century. And 50 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: he also reportedly made a working telegraph system that they 51 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,920 Speaker 1: set up between his bedroom and a friend's bedroom. His 52 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:17,280 Speaker 1: friend lived half a mile away, and it was all 53 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:19,839 Speaker 1: made out of fencing wire. Yeah, so he could all 54 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:22,760 Speaker 1: but I mean the wire itself. Yeah, he could actually 55 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,320 Speaker 1: end up sending messages to his friend have a mile away. 56 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:28,080 Speaker 1: He was also really into radio circuits and built a 57 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: radio controlled model boat. Yeah, so very much that. Yeah. Yeah, 58 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: this is this is the growing world of radio technology 59 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:39,760 Speaker 1: and the growing world of communications technology. So he was 60 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,080 Speaker 1: interested in it as a kid. Now a little bit 61 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:45,839 Speaker 1: later on, when he was a teenager, he got work 62 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 1: as a basic mechanic in a drug store, running a 63 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: fix it shop in a drug store, because that's that 64 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:55,400 Speaker 1: was like the center of town. Yeah, where you go 65 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: and you go and get your your chocolate malt and 66 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: your your your fan fixed. You know, it's a one 67 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: stop shop. He attended an Arbor College, where he studied 68 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:10,960 Speaker 1: mathematics and electrical engineering. He graduated an Arbor College in 69 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six and then went on to enroll in 70 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: graduate level study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And 71 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:21,960 Speaker 1: he decided upon m i T because he saw this 72 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 1: work study ad like pinned onto a physical bulletin board 73 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: on his college campus that was advertising for someone interested 74 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:34,920 Speaker 1: in working on Vanavar Bush's differential analyzer, which was an 75 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: analog computer that used these physical mechanical connections to make calculations. 76 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:43,120 Speaker 1: The deal here was that he would spend half his 77 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: time working towards his degree and the other half in 78 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: the lab with bush Um, who was then m i 79 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: t s vice president and also their dean of engineering. 80 00:04:51,040 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 1: So this was kind of sort of a big deal Um, 81 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: and this machine was huge. It was the system of 82 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: gears and pulleys and rods that calculated with an entire 83 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: range values that were based on the physical rotation of 84 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:07,040 Speaker 1: the rods, and you could program it by physically rearranging 85 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:10,760 Speaker 1: all of these mechanical bits to correspond with different equations 86 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:13,679 Speaker 1: the control circuit. I mean that this is how early 87 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:17,800 Speaker 1: this was in computing technology. The control circuit itself was 88 00:05:17,839 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: a system of some hundred electromagnetic switches. Yeah. This this 89 00:05:22,720 --> 00:05:27,360 Speaker 1: is a kind of the the evolution of what Charles 90 00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: Babbage created way back in the day, the difference engine. 91 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: Uh so we've done the text us done episodes about 92 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: and a Lovelace, who was the first computer programmer she built. 93 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: She kind of saw that computers could be things that 94 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,359 Speaker 1: could do more than just crunch numbers. They could analyze 95 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,480 Speaker 1: any kind of data. Yeah, they could represent stuff that 96 00:05:48,720 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 1: isn't numbers as numbers, so that you could She had 97 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:56,080 Speaker 1: this brilliant idea of, oh, a computer might be able 98 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: to represent something like a piece of music and be 99 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: able to create, you know, replicated in some way. Years 100 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: and years ahead of her time. And the computers of 101 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:11,440 Speaker 1: those days were these giant analog actual machines. Yeah, sometimes manpowered. 102 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,599 Speaker 1: Sometimes they had this electro mechanical element to it. So 103 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,200 Speaker 1: we're predating the time of the electronic computer at this point, 104 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 1: so uh As Claude Shannon began to work on this machine, 105 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 1: you know now that he had had enrolled with M 106 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: I T. He noticed something interesting. He saw that the 107 00:06:28,240 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: switches corresponded with a concept he had started on studying 108 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 1: first as an undergraduate, and that was really focusing on, 109 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 1: which was symbolic logic. Now. I took symbolic logic in college. 110 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 1: I loved it because the basic idea of symbolic logic 111 00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:51,039 Speaker 1: is you reduce logical statements to mathematical statements. Actually, I 112 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 1: took a similar class. It was it was basically the 113 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:56,880 Speaker 1: at least mathematical math class I could get away with 114 00:06:56,920 --> 00:06:59,840 Speaker 1: as an English major. Well, the neat thing about it 115 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:04,200 Speaker 1: that if you could prove that it mathematically made sense, 116 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: then you could say that the statement is true right, 117 00:07:07,640 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: and if it does exactly so, you could you could 118 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: start to listen to your friends argue and sketch it out. 119 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:18,679 Speaker 1: And then he said, look, here's where you went wrong. 120 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: But at any rate, while he was at M I T. 121 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:25,200 Speaker 1: He started really studying the work of a thinker named 122 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: George Boole, who was from the nineteenth century and back 123 00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:32,800 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty four, George Bull published an investigation of 124 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,000 Speaker 1: the laws of thought on which are founded the mathematical 125 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:40,200 Speaker 1: theories of logic and probabilities, sometimes known as the laws 126 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:43,119 Speaker 1: of the We usually shorten that to just laws of thought. 127 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:48,560 Speaker 1: So this discussion about the mathematical theories of logic had 128 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:52,920 Speaker 1: Bull using algebraic equations to represent logical forms and syllogisms, 129 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: which is exactly what you know I experienced when I 130 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: was in college. In this work, he also said that 131 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:02,480 Speaker 1: the only i'd impotent numbers, which are numbers that can 132 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 1: be put through a certain operation multiple times without changing 133 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:09,800 Speaker 1: the result, are zero and one. For example, one times 134 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,160 Speaker 1: one equals one, and no matter how many times you 135 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: will multiply one by one, it will always be one. Right, 136 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: So if you take the product of that of that 137 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 1: that equation and then multiplied by itself, you still stay 138 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: with one, same thing with zero, although also with zero 139 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:27,720 Speaker 1: you can add and subtract and still end up with zero. 140 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: So zero zero, zero, zero, so bool use zero and 141 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:34,120 Speaker 1: one for the values of the symbols. In his algebraic logic, 142 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:37,480 Speaker 1: he said an argument held in logic if when reduced 143 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:40,840 Speaker 1: to an algebraic equation, it held in common algebra with 144 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: the zero one restriction of the possible interpretations of the symbols, 145 00:08:44,720 --> 00:08:47,080 Speaker 1: meaning that if you could replace the symbols with a 146 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:49,679 Speaker 1: zero or a one and it's still made sense, it 147 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:53,520 Speaker 1: still worked, then it held true. So Claude Shannon looked 148 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: at this and he was thinking, this is a really 149 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,000 Speaker 1: cool idea. I love this, this approach to logic. And hey, 150 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,959 Speaker 1: you know a switch has two positions on and off, 151 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,280 Speaker 1: so sort of like a one in zero. Yeah, I 152 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:10,480 Speaker 1: mean what if we were to, you know, kind of 153 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,400 Speaker 1: so play with that, that whole switch process, And that 154 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: became something that would percolated in the back of his 155 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: head for a while. In fact, it percolated so long 156 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:24,079 Speaker 1: that people suspect that he had fully formed this whole 157 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:29,440 Speaker 1: idea of applying boolean logic to electronic devices for years 158 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,480 Speaker 1: before writing it down, and once he wrote it out 159 00:09:32,600 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: and presented it, well, we'll get there. We'll get there. 160 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: I also do want to note that around this time 161 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:41,960 Speaker 1: Shannon became interested in juggling, I think originally for like 162 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:45,320 Speaker 1: physical mathematical purposes. He showed up, he started showing up 163 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: at the m I T Juggling Club, Juggling Club I 164 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:51,160 Speaker 1: see what you did there, and asking some of its 165 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: members if he could like measure their juggling, and and 166 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,520 Speaker 1: thereby sort of got involved with them, and this would 167 00:09:58,559 --> 00:10:01,280 Speaker 1: be a lifelong in trist As we will get into 168 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:03,079 Speaker 1: a little bit later on a little bit of trivia. 169 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: A certain podcaster by the name of Jonathan Strickland was 170 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: a founding member of the University of Georgia Juggling Club. So, uh, 171 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,400 Speaker 1: that's the only thing I really share in common with 172 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: claud I loved symbolic logic and I enjoyed juggling. They're 173 00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 1: the comparison ends for he was far more intelligent than 174 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:26,720 Speaker 1: I can ever hope to aspire. But yeah, you have 175 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,160 Speaker 1: to agree with no, It's it's fine. I I have 176 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:34,080 Speaker 1: come to grips with it. Okay. If you told me, hey, Jonathan, 177 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:36,040 Speaker 1: you're never going to be as smart as say Claude 178 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: Shannon or Albert Einstein, it's alright. Most people won't be, 179 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:44,360 Speaker 1: so I guess. Ninety eight, Claude Shannon writes a thesis 180 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:48,520 Speaker 1: applying Bulls approach to circuitry by equating the zero one 181 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:51,440 Speaker 1: restriction as the off and on positions of a switch 182 00:10:51,520 --> 00:10:55,559 Speaker 1: within a circuit. He was twenty two years old. This, 183 00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: this had never been done. This has never been the 184 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,160 Speaker 1: first time anyone had ever said this, certainly out loud, 185 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: and other thinkers have said that it would have taken 186 00:11:04,679 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: decades for anyone else to have come to this kind 187 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 1: of conclusion. Right, we could have been sort of groping 188 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:13,079 Speaker 1: around with other approaches for years before someone had come 189 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:17,880 Speaker 1: up with this particular version. And not only did he 190 00:11:17,920 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 1: come up with this idea, but the way he he 191 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 1: presented it in his thesis, it was very elegant, and 192 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,280 Speaker 1: he would he would expand upon it a little bit later, 193 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:28,760 Speaker 1: to the point where people said, this is this is 194 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: why he gets compared to Einstein. It's like Einstein saying 195 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,760 Speaker 1: not just I figured out this one component to how 196 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:38,600 Speaker 1: the universe works, but being able to express it elegantly 197 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 1: and have a whole picture right. Like it's like it's 198 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,000 Speaker 1: not just a fact, it's a hill host of facts 199 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,520 Speaker 1: that are all support one another. And it's like they say, 200 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,319 Speaker 1: it's it's like you come up with a fundamental theory 201 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: of science and unfold it all at once. It's just so. 202 00:11:56,760 --> 00:11:59,880 Speaker 1: His thesis also laid out how logical functions such as 203 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 1: and or and not could be implemented within a physical circuit, 204 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:07,640 Speaker 1: so building of logic gates. Now keep in mind this 205 00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:11,600 Speaker 1: is all in a hypothetical slash theoretical approach, right, It's 206 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,719 Speaker 1: not like he was. He wasn't building this mechanically or 207 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: or electronically. That's the case. Maybe exactly, yeah, he was. 208 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: He was. He was laying out how this could be possible, 209 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:24,959 Speaker 1: not actually building them himself. Claude Shannon leaves m I 210 00:12:25,080 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: T after earning a doctorate in mathematics to teach for 211 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:31,959 Speaker 1: one year at Princeton Um. And here's the story. Has 212 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 1: a couple of different who has some alternate endings. We 213 00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 1: will present you with the two that we know of. 214 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:39,679 Speaker 1: But the story goes that he was teaching at Princeton 215 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:42,160 Speaker 1: and while he was teaching a class he was holding 216 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: a lecture. Albert Einstein himself opened the door and stepped inside, 217 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,640 Speaker 1: and Claude Shannon kept going on with a lecture, but 218 00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: obviously was very much impressed with the fact that this 219 00:12:55,480 --> 00:13:00,319 Speaker 1: genius has walked into his classroom. He sees I'm Stein 220 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:03,040 Speaker 1: bend over and whisper something to one of the students 221 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:05,360 Speaker 1: in the back. He sees that the student replies and 222 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,360 Speaker 1: then he sees that Einstein quietly leaves the room. He 223 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 1: continues on with his lecture. At the end of the lecture, 224 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,240 Speaker 1: he holds the student back and with great anticipation, asks 225 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:19,280 Speaker 1: the student, what did this brilliant man have to say 226 00:13:19,320 --> 00:13:23,440 Speaker 1: about my lecture? And my version of the story was 227 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,839 Speaker 1: that Einstein had very quietly asked the student where are 228 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:31,080 Speaker 1: they currently serving tea? I've heard that he asked where 229 00:13:31,080 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 1: the men's room was, so it maybe there's where are 230 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: they currently allowing you to peet? Could possibly been at 231 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: any rate. Apparently that became one of Claude Shannon's favorite stories. 232 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:45,360 Speaker 1: He would love to tell the story about how Albert 233 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:49,200 Speaker 1: Einstein walked into his classroom and asked something completely not 234 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:51,560 Speaker 1: connected with what he had to say, and that made 235 00:13:51,640 --> 00:13:55,320 Speaker 1: him like just tickled in it tickled it, And I thought, 236 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:57,400 Speaker 1: well that that also tells you a lot about his 237 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: his personality that he did not take himself seriously. Yeah. Uh. 238 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:06,200 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty one, he joined a company famous for 239 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:11,079 Speaker 1: its research and development, Bell Telephone Labs, and his work 240 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,840 Speaker 1: mostly focused on things that had to do with the 241 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: war effort. In this ninety one is World War two, 242 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: and it included anti aircraft devices that could calculate and 243 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 1: target counter missiles, which came pretty seriously in handy during 244 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:28,200 Speaker 1: the German blitz on England. Yeah. Yeah, it turns out 245 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: if if your enemy is blasting you with missiles, counter 246 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:35,320 Speaker 1: missiles are a high priority. He also got to work 247 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: in cryptography, so here's something where he's got a you know, 248 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: a connection with people like Alan Turing who was working 249 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: on cracking the Enigma machine back over in England. He 250 00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:48,880 Speaker 1: was now Claude Shannon was designed devices used by Allied 251 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: powers to send messages back and forth, so he was 252 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:55,040 Speaker 1: looking at keeping Allied messages safe rather than cracking German 253 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: messages or access power messages. He later wrote a paper 254 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:03,840 Speaker 1: about communication theory of secrecy systems, which, according to M. I. 255 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:07,680 Speaker 1: T is generally credited with transforming cryptography from an art 256 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:11,160 Speaker 1: to a science. UM it was a mathematical proof that 257 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:13,880 Speaker 1: an encryption scheme called the one time pad or the 258 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: Vernon cipher is is unbreakable. And it's the that cipher 259 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:20,920 Speaker 1: is the basic idea of encoding a message with a 260 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,640 Speaker 1: random series of digits a key, as we have talked 261 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:27,560 Speaker 1: about on the show before UM which both parties communicating 262 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,560 Speaker 1: have a copy of But you know, this is a 263 00:15:30,680 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: very simple concept in cryptography, but having the mathematical proof 264 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,920 Speaker 1: that it is in fact unbreakable if the system is, 265 00:15:40,320 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 1: then that's really awesome. And when we talked about the 266 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,400 Speaker 1: Enigma machine, that was one of those systems that could 267 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:50,880 Speaker 1: have been unbreakable had people actually been able to follow 268 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,640 Speaker 1: the rules properly. But because there were two things that 269 00:15:54,720 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: really fell apart for the Enigma machine. And I know 270 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:58,400 Speaker 1: this is a bit of a tangent, but it relates 271 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:01,160 Speaker 1: to this. Yeah, those two things were. One, the Enigma 272 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:04,480 Speaker 1: machine was designed so that no matter what the letter 273 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,600 Speaker 1: you pressed would never light up as the same the 274 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:09,520 Speaker 1: same letter would never light up as the letter that 275 00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:12,480 Speaker 1: you had pressed, So knowing that meant that you could 276 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: remove one variable from all the possible outcomes. Secondly, people 277 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: were not as careful with their log books, with their 278 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: code books as they needed to be um and that 279 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:26,120 Speaker 1: that led to the code being broken. But everyone seems 280 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: to agree that had every had the Germans, had the 281 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:34,240 Speaker 1: access powers, been incredibly careful, then that would have been 282 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:38,480 Speaker 1: an unbreakable code. Of course, times of war, you can't 283 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: really do share in human error being what it is. Yeah, 284 00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:44,280 Speaker 1: I mean it's it's that's the difference between the ideal 285 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 1: and reality. Meanwhile, uh, Claude Shannon began to develop theories 286 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,520 Speaker 1: on how to apply his ideas about bully and logic 287 00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,080 Speaker 1: and circuitry to telephone switching lines. Because of course he's 288 00:16:55,120 --> 00:17:00,080 Speaker 1: working at Bell Labs in something else not involved of 289 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,360 Speaker 1: in Claude Shannon happened that Bell Labs the development of 290 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:08,000 Speaker 1: the transistor. Now, the transistor was a huge breakthrough. It 291 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,720 Speaker 1: meant that the world of electronics could move away from 292 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 1: things like vacuum tubes and allow this other device to 293 00:17:15,560 --> 00:17:20,639 Speaker 1: take its place, essentially, which ultimately lead to the manatorization 294 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:25,040 Speaker 1: of electronics. But it wouldn't be until Claude Shannon um 295 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:30,520 Speaker 1: published his concepts about information theory that would let that 296 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:34,120 Speaker 1: be a functional item in the way that it became. Yeah. Yeah, 297 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:38,160 Speaker 1: it was really this idea of digitizing information that Shannon 298 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:43,520 Speaker 1: had that made this a a practical device beyond just 299 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,080 Speaker 1: especially that early transistor. It's enormous if you ever see 300 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:49,239 Speaker 1: a picture of it, I think compared to the If 301 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,560 Speaker 1: you think that billions of transistors can now fit on 302 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:55,000 Speaker 1: a microprocessor chip, and then you look at the first 303 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,119 Speaker 1: one it's it's enormous difference. Obviously. Now, this idea of 304 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: digitizing information was pretty much what would allow the transistor 305 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,159 Speaker 1: to become useful. And also it's what would lead to 306 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:11,959 Speaker 1: things like encoding information onto storage media like uh, like 307 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,680 Speaker 1: a compact disc. This is what would make not just uh, 308 00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,920 Speaker 1: processing data possible, but storing it. Yeah, and right, it's 309 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:22,920 Speaker 1: it's kind of a really beautiful coincidence that both of 310 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,840 Speaker 1: these technologies were being developed at Bell Labs within a 311 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,399 Speaker 1: year of each other. As it turns out, because in 312 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:35,439 Speaker 1: that is when claudean and actually published his paper Mathematical 313 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 1: Theory of Communication. Yes, and that's available in PDF form. 314 00:18:39,359 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: Will will share the link because you can actually read 315 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:45,480 Speaker 1: his paper on information theory. And this is the one 316 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,720 Speaker 1: that I said earlier that you know, people, people who 317 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,199 Speaker 1: were information theory experts, they say like, this is this 318 00:18:52,280 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: is like Einstein coming out with the theories of relativity. 319 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,680 Speaker 1: This idea of a complete picture, not just an idea, 320 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 1: but a complete picture of an approach that laid the 321 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:08,240 Speaker 1: groundwork for digitizing information so it can be transmitted and stored. Now, again, 322 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,840 Speaker 1: he was a theorist. He did not build this. He 323 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,280 Speaker 1: explained how it is mathematically possible, right, and so it 324 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,760 Speaker 1: left it up to engineers and computer scientists to figure out, Okay, 325 00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: if this is theoretically possible, how do we make it real? 326 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:25,640 Speaker 1: What do we do to actually put this stuff into 327 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 1: into reality and have it work for us? Uh? Now 328 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:33,160 Speaker 1: was when it was published, But there are people who 329 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:35,520 Speaker 1: have looked into Claude Shannon's life who say that he 330 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,200 Speaker 1: may have had this fully formed as early as ninety three, 331 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:41,160 Speaker 1: and he thought that it was a really cool idea, 332 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: but just didn't think, you know, no one else is 333 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: going to care about this. I would, I would argue. 334 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:48,720 Speaker 1: I mean, from from what I've read, it sounded to 335 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:50,879 Speaker 1: me more like he kind of had it brewing and 336 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:53,680 Speaker 1: just didn't want to present it until it was done. 337 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:56,159 Speaker 1: He did seem like the kind of person who he 338 00:19:56,200 --> 00:20:00,280 Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that he had as complete a 339 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:03,840 Speaker 1: picture of an idea as possible before presenting it to 340 00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:06,639 Speaker 1: anyone else. He did not want to have the experience 341 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: of coming forward with just half an idea. So yeah, 342 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:14,040 Speaker 1: he's kind of a perfectionist in that sense. And it 343 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:19,000 Speaker 1: really is a challenge to explain just to an average 344 00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 1: person exactly how important this theory was, but you know, 345 00:20:23,359 --> 00:20:25,399 Speaker 1: in a in a practical sense at the time that 346 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:27,639 Speaker 1: he was coming up with this, it was necessary to 347 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:30,879 Speaker 1: create a better telephone system. So in the old analog 348 00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:35,439 Speaker 1: telephone system, you've got some pretty big limitations, some some 349 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,400 Speaker 1: barriers you've got to get across due to signal loss 350 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:42,600 Speaker 1: or noise, and analog telephone signal gets weaker the longer 351 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:45,320 Speaker 1: that the telephone line it's traveling along is. Yeah, so 352 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:48,359 Speaker 1: in order to get around that, engineers would place amplifiers 353 00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,000 Speaker 1: along a telephone line to boost the signal. So you 354 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: get a weak signal coming in, it goes through the amplifier, 355 00:20:53,880 --> 00:20:57,679 Speaker 1: the signals boosted, it's stronger going out. But unfortunately, um 356 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:00,280 Speaker 1: the along with the signal that you want to get staid, 357 00:21:00,320 --> 00:21:02,760 Speaker 1: all of the noise that's on the line also gets boosted. 358 00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,320 Speaker 1: So eventually you run out I mean, I mean just 359 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 1: the noise takes over. Yeah, Yeah, you lose the signal 360 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:09,520 Speaker 1: in the noise. So that would be you know, if 361 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:13,520 Speaker 1: you've ever heard like one of those those telephone conversations 362 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:16,880 Speaker 1: that goes on in an old movie where it's just 363 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:19,720 Speaker 1: like all you hear is cracked, like yeah, just imagine 364 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,160 Speaker 1: that if you're far enough away that all you would 365 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:23,840 Speaker 1: get was the stack. You would not get any voice 366 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:28,040 Speaker 1: at all. So, uh, the interesting thing was that by 367 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 1: switching from analog signals to digital signals, they didn't have 368 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,119 Speaker 1: to worry about the signal boosting problem. Instead of a 369 00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: continuous signal like a sign wave, which is, you know, 370 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,520 Speaker 1: an acoustic wave, is what you would get with an 371 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 1: analog telephone line, digital signals are sent in a series 372 00:21:44,560 --> 00:21:46,920 Speaker 1: of bits, and a bit is either a zero or 373 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:50,119 Speaker 1: a one. That's all based off of Claude Shannon's application 374 00:21:50,119 --> 00:21:54,320 Speaker 1: of Boolean algebra to electronics, and it worked so you 375 00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:57,000 Speaker 1: could do this with telephones, which was great, but it 376 00:21:57,119 --> 00:21:59,120 Speaker 1: meant you could also do it with just about any 377 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:03,760 Speaker 1: other kind of nation transfer from radio to telegraph, telephones, everything. 378 00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:06,760 Speaker 1: And again this was one of those things that could 379 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: not immediately be implemented. The engineers had to build the 380 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,680 Speaker 1: technology sporting. But once they did, they realized, we can 381 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: build out a nationwide telephone, even a global telephone system 382 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:22,280 Speaker 1: that doesn't require amplifiers every x number of miles because 383 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:26,280 Speaker 1: you're never going to lose that that signal clarity, all right, 384 00:22:26,359 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 1: Like hypothetically, you can do this with literally zero loss 385 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,359 Speaker 1: in quality. So so long as you don't mind taking 386 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:36,240 Speaker 1: the necessary amount of time for each bit to be transferred, 387 00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:39,240 Speaker 1: really the transfer speed is the only cap that you're 388 00:22:39,280 --> 00:22:42,440 Speaker 1: working with at this junction, exactly. And Claude Shannon he 389 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: kind of came up with that too. He said, uh, 390 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,879 Speaker 1: you know, if if we have an infinite amount of time, 391 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:54,720 Speaker 1: you'll have zero signal laws. But that any medium of 392 00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:58,680 Speaker 1: transmission is going to have ultimately a cap of how 393 00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:01,720 Speaker 1: much data it can care y at any given within 394 00:23:01,880 --> 00:23:05,720 Speaker 1: a given amount of time. So it was interesting because 395 00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:07,679 Speaker 1: that was one of those things that ended up becoming 396 00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:12,400 Speaker 1: a challenge to engineers. He said, look, for whatever medium 397 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,920 Speaker 1: you choose, it's and it's specific to each medium. You're 398 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,600 Speaker 1: going to have this limit that you're going to hit 399 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,120 Speaker 1: and you can't go beyond it. And the engineer said, 400 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:23,199 Speaker 1: all right, we agree, there's no way we can go 401 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: beyond that limit. So what our goal is is to 402 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,320 Speaker 1: get as close to that limit as we possibly can. 403 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:32,320 Speaker 1: And and this also led into some really interesting side 404 00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:37,919 Speaker 1: concepts about digital compression and error. Yeah exactly, Yeah, you 405 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,680 Speaker 1: had to. You could end up compressing data into smaller 406 00:23:41,760 --> 00:23:46,000 Speaker 1: data packages, which helps you get around that bandwidth cap 407 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: But in order to do that, you also have to 408 00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:51,680 Speaker 1: have that that error correction software, that those algorithms that 409 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:55,560 Speaker 1: are able to detect and and fix any errors that 410 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:59,000 Speaker 1: come across while you're transmitting this information. These were all 411 00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:02,720 Speaker 1: laid out his ideas, and and that that error correction 412 00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:07,280 Speaker 1: concept also ties back into the idea that, uh, you know, 413 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,879 Speaker 1: if you scratch a c D, you can still it 414 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,400 Speaker 1: can still be read. Yeah, yeah, because you have these 415 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: extra bits that are built into the data itself, these 416 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,520 Speaker 1: bits that otherwise would seem superfluous. They're not necessary for 417 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:23,600 Speaker 1: you to have the full message, but those extra bits 418 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,399 Speaker 1: actually allow some redundancy. So if there is some damage 419 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,640 Speaker 1: to the physical medium, you can still end up using it. 420 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,240 Speaker 1: And it's not like you get a smudge on your 421 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:36,480 Speaker 1: your your disk and now you can't use it. Right. 422 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,000 Speaker 1: So the concept of a disc also being new because 423 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:40,880 Speaker 1: that was something that he laid out in here, saying 424 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: that this is a method for possible storage, not just transmission, 425 00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 1: but also storage. Yeah, so so big big ideas. Uh. 426 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: At any rate, moving on with his life, I mean 427 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:53,480 Speaker 1: he's so he's already gotten to the point where he's 428 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:55,679 Speaker 1: laid out everything that's going to lead to things like 429 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:59,800 Speaker 1: JPEG's m P three's ZIP files. UH, data transmission a 430 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 1: ross cable across telephone lines. All of this stuff is 431 00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:08,000 Speaker 1: possible because of the ideas he came up with. His 432 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,280 Speaker 1: life continues on and in nineteen forty nine he marries 433 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:15,920 Speaker 1: Mary Elizabeth Moore Betty Betty. She was a new miracle 434 00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 1: analyst at Bell Labs, and they would go on to 435 00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:23,040 Speaker 1: have two children together. And he also, during his time 436 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: off from changing the world UH, decided to build a 437 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:29,359 Speaker 1: simple computer to play chess, and he wrote a paper 438 00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: about programming computers and computer chess algorithms. A lot of 439 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:38,439 Speaker 1: computer like chess playing computers are still based upon the 440 00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,320 Speaker 1: foundations that he laid out while he was working on 441 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:43,920 Speaker 1: this UH. You find that the Claude Shannon in his 442 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,919 Speaker 1: spirit time often did things that that most of us 443 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: would be like, well, you could have a full time 444 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: job doing that. He's like, no, I just want you know, 445 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,280 Speaker 1: I'd like to keep my hand in. Around that time, 446 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: engineers at Bell Labs at that time being ninety nine, 447 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,600 Speaker 1: began to actually create the technolog The implemented Shannon's ideas, 448 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:06,560 Speaker 1: and they built something called a regenerative repeater and the 449 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,800 Speaker 1: idea was that a bit could be regenerated perfectly and 450 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:13,359 Speaker 1: repeatedly as long as the bits weren't quote unquote too small. 451 00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,640 Speaker 1: So as long as the messages weren't too small, they 452 00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:21,280 Speaker 1: could consistently regenerate a message. Uh and that would mean 453 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,160 Speaker 1: that you would again have no signal loss, You wouldn't 454 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,639 Speaker 1: lose any data in the process because you could just 455 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,240 Speaker 1: just as quickly as it was coming into the regenerative 456 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 1: regenerative repeater, it would send out a copy the same 457 00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:38,280 Speaker 1: data message back out again. Um. Also to around this time, 458 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,080 Speaker 1: as the engineers at Bell Labs were creating that that 459 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:46,600 Speaker 1: physical technology to incorporate Shannon's ideas, he started to introduce 460 00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: the idea of bandwidth limits. Yeah, this is what I 461 00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:50,720 Speaker 1: was talking about when he said, it doesn't matter what 462 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:54,720 Speaker 1: medium you're using, eventually you're going to hit that capacity. 463 00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:59,359 Speaker 1: And eventually they started calling this the Shannon capacity or 464 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:03,120 Speaker 1: Shannon limit. So it was again a very important idea 465 00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,600 Speaker 1: that ended up being playing a huge role in the 466 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,480 Speaker 1: telecommunications industry as well as just electronics and computing in general. 467 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: Uh So, this is what gives engineers that goal, This 468 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,080 Speaker 1: is where they want to hit as close to that 469 00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:18,359 Speaker 1: number as they possibly can to maximize the amount of 470 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:22,920 Speaker 1: data they can shove through any particular medium at top speed. So, 471 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:26,639 Speaker 1: you know, we often talk about data transmission speeds, but 472 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: speed is really kind of a deceptive term because it's 473 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: not just how fast something gets from point A to 474 00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:36,520 Speaker 1: point B. Usually we're talking about speeds that are approaching 475 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,879 Speaker 1: the speed of light. That's really fast. What we're what 476 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,960 Speaker 1: we're really concerned with is throughput, which is the amount 477 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:45,800 Speaker 1: of data that can travel at that speed to get 478 00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:48,240 Speaker 1: from point A to point B. Because if you're dividing 479 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,760 Speaker 1: that data up into lots of of bits like a 480 00:27:50,800 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: long string, yes, each individual bit is moving at the 481 00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:55,520 Speaker 1: speed of light, but you still got to get that 482 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: whole string through. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's the you know, 483 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:00,560 Speaker 1: getting the campus through at the end. Yeah. Yeah, it's 484 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,120 Speaker 1: the idea of if the if we hear that there's 485 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,280 Speaker 1: pizza in the kitchen, uh, and we're all invited to 486 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,280 Speaker 1: go and eat it. Then the problem isn't that we 487 00:28:09,320 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 1: have a bunch of slow people on staff. We're all 488 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,840 Speaker 1: very very fast. The problem is the doors only so wide, 489 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:16,200 Speaker 1: and eventually four or five of us while just try 490 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: and cram through it, at the same time. So that's 491 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,880 Speaker 1: the difference between just speed and throughput. Now, sept ones 492 00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,359 Speaker 1: and zeroes don't usually elbow you in the face, that's true, 493 00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: but we have no such restriction, as we have demonstrated 494 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:33,840 Speaker 1: upon multiple occasions. Now, at this time, engineers were also 495 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,560 Speaker 1: trying to find on ways to take on other elements 496 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: of this theory, like the compression and redundancy ideas, and 497 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:44,760 Speaker 1: build working devices and algorithms that turned that theory into reality, 498 00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:48,120 Speaker 1: actually making products that could take advantage of the ideas 499 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:53,239 Speaker 1: that Shannon had produced. And uh. Meanwhile, Shannon received a 500 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: very special present at Christmas of from his wife this year, 501 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,360 Speaker 1: a unicycle, and stories say that he frequently rode through 502 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:05,040 Speaker 1: the halls of Bell Labs at night on this unicycle 503 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:08,760 Speaker 1: while juggling. He is my hero because of why not? Now, See, 504 00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,840 Speaker 1: if my wife gave me a unicycle for Christmas, I 505 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 1: would imagine she was plotting my demise and perhaps had 506 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,040 Speaker 1: put taken out yet another life insurance policy on me 507 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:23,800 Speaker 1: because she knows my my lack of balance. But but 508 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: I I have nothing but respect for someone who is 509 00:29:27,440 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: transforming information theory while writing a unicycle and juggling juggling. Yeah, 510 00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:37,520 Speaker 1: so because because it Meanwhile he was looking into machine 511 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,360 Speaker 1: intelligence and memory. Yeah, he was really branching out, you know, 512 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,840 Speaker 1: he was he was very much interested in exploring all 513 00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: these different ideas. Now, by nineteen fifties six, he decides 514 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:51,120 Speaker 1: to leave Bell Labs, though he continues on as a 515 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,680 Speaker 1: consultant and he goes back to M I. T. To teach. 516 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 1: He also wrote a paper he was called the Bandwagon, 517 00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,400 Speaker 1: and uh, that's when he said he didn't really like 518 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,280 Speaker 1: how the words information theory were being thrown around. So 519 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 1: essentially what he was saying was that they were losing 520 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,880 Speaker 1: their value. Information theory as a concept was losing its 521 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:15,160 Speaker 1: value because companies were using it to describe things that 522 00:30:15,240 --> 00:30:18,480 Speaker 1: didn't really fall within the umbrella of information. Yeah. It 523 00:30:18,520 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: was a really popular and pop culture almost term in 524 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,400 Speaker 1: the scientific community at the time. And I mean people 525 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,840 Speaker 1: were publishing papers that had information theory and the title 526 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: just because they thought it sounded cool, when in fact, right, 527 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:32,720 Speaker 1: it had nothing to do with that. So it was 528 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: kind of like how virtual reality became this buzzword that 529 00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,840 Speaker 1: began to lose meaning, particularly when the public started to 530 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:44,160 Speaker 1: see what the reality of the field was as compared 531 00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:47,320 Speaker 1: to the Hollywood depiction of what virtual reality was back 532 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,120 Speaker 1: in the early nineties. Sure, sure like artificial intelligence or 533 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:53,480 Speaker 1: I read an essay recently from the guy who coined 534 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: the term manic Pixie dreamgirls saying that he just wished 535 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:58,680 Speaker 1: he had never done that thing. I would like to 536 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,200 Speaker 1: apologize to the world. Yeah. So this was one of 537 00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 1: those interesting things were the paper wasn't so much about 538 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,000 Speaker 1: advancing the concept, but just saying, let's use our words 539 00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: carefully and correctly. He said that perhaps the term had 540 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:17,840 Speaker 1: quote ballooned to an importance beyond its actual accomplishments end quote. 541 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,480 Speaker 1: I think that's a little bit modest on his part, Honestly, 542 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,920 Speaker 1: I think so too, considering that again, without that theory, 543 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: computers and electronics would not work the way they do today. Yeah, 544 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,080 Speaker 1: but at any rate, this kind of marked the beginning 545 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:36,280 Speaker 1: of Shannon's disappearance from the research and technology scene. He 546 00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:38,960 Speaker 1: he really didn't want to be a celebrity, I think, 547 00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:41,880 Speaker 1: and he had this huge push from the media and 548 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,760 Speaker 1: the government and science in general to be made into one, 549 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 1: and it it kind of pulled him away from from 550 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 1: both research and public education, right and he was it 551 00:31:52,680 --> 00:31:55,640 Speaker 1: wasn't that he was cold from why, I understand whenever 552 00:31:55,640 --> 00:31:58,120 Speaker 1: he gave talks they were really great, and whenever he 553 00:31:58,160 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: wrote papers they were really great. He was constantly being 554 00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:04,360 Speaker 1: pressured to do that, and it was starting to become 555 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,760 Speaker 1: more of something that would cause him anxiety as opposed 556 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:10,920 Speaker 1: to something that he would enjoy doing well. In nineteen 557 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,880 Speaker 1: seventy three, the Information Theory Society, which is part of 558 00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:18,520 Speaker 1: the I Triple E or I, created an annual Shannon 559 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,840 Speaker 1: lecture that became the Shannon Award UH And in nineteen 560 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,160 Speaker 1: seventy eight, Claude Shannon officially retired from m T, although 561 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 1: he had not really been actively working there for some 562 00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:32,560 Speaker 1: years before. Certainly UH and in nineteen eight seven, Claude 563 00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:37,000 Speaker 1: Shannon gave his last interview to Omni Magazine. Now, by 564 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:40,560 Speaker 1: the late eighties, Claude Shannon began to suffer from Alzheimer's 565 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 1: and withdrew from the public eye entirely. His wife would 566 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,719 Speaker 1: go and attend events instead in his place, and in 567 00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,680 Speaker 1: February two thousand one, at the age of eighty four, 568 00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,960 Speaker 1: he would pass away. Yes, there are some very UH 569 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,920 Speaker 1: inspiring and moving tributes to Claude Shannon that were published. 570 00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,200 Speaker 1: Really beautiful things. You can certainly go online and read 571 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 1: a lot of those those tributes that were written the 572 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,520 Speaker 1: week and month following his passing. And we have a 573 00:33:10,560 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 1: collection of interesting little trivia that we didn't really want 574 00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,479 Speaker 1: to fit into the overall episode. But it didn't really 575 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 1: fit into the timeline. But so much of I mean, 576 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,520 Speaker 1: if it wasn't charming enough, I mean, if charming is 577 00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:25,680 Speaker 1: the correct word, actually charming is totally the correct word. 578 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: According to me, I find it downright charming that he wrote, 579 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 1: you know, papers that mathematically proved the computers can exist. 580 00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,080 Speaker 1: But but but but other than that, there's just a 581 00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:42,520 Speaker 1: lot of little just so. So one of those things 582 00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 1: is that, you know, we just said he he was 583 00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,440 Speaker 1: not big on on pursuing the limelight. He didn't he 584 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,160 Speaker 1: didn't go after that at all, and and often he 585 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: would reluctantly take the stage, but as time went on, 586 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:58,600 Speaker 1: he did that even less frequently. He wouldn't go out 587 00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: very much at all to address the public, and according 588 00:34:02,560 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: to M I. T. Technology Review, he even had a 589 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:09,960 Speaker 1: file labeled letters I've procrastinated too long on So if 590 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,040 Speaker 1: he got something from colleagues or government officials or scientific 591 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:17,120 Speaker 1: institutions and had just been sitting around for a really 592 00:34:17,160 --> 00:34:19,399 Speaker 1: long while. He would just put this in a file, saying, well, 593 00:34:20,320 --> 00:34:22,680 Speaker 1: that's too that's too late, and that's never gonna happen. 594 00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:25,960 Speaker 1: So I'm just gonna put that in this file. Um. He, 595 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:29,440 Speaker 1: like we said, love to build stuff, to engineer stuff. 596 00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:32,839 Speaker 1: You know that whole telegraph line stories one of my favorites. Um. Now, 597 00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:36,080 Speaker 1: as a parent, he built a chairlift that would take 598 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,839 Speaker 1: his kids from his house to a nearby lake so 599 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 1: they didn't have to walk the whole way to the lake. 600 00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,800 Speaker 1: He also, from what I understand, designed a hidden panel 601 00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:48,840 Speaker 1: in his office that didn't lead anywhere at all. He 602 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:51,360 Speaker 1: just he just felt like building one. He just needed it. 603 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:53,720 Speaker 1: It made me think of a Mitchell and Web sketch 604 00:34:53,760 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 1: where this wall must rotate both here and not here. Look, Mite, 605 00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,040 Speaker 1: that's a load bearing wool. But anyway, he just decided 606 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,720 Speaker 1: he wanted to make one. He also built a life 607 00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: sized electric mouse named Theseus, after the Greek mythology figure 608 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,239 Speaker 1: that's the one who was stuck in the labyrinth that 609 00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,120 Speaker 1: had to find his way out in the minotaur or minotar, 610 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,280 Speaker 1: depending upon your preferred pronunciations, after him. So this mouse, 611 00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:23,600 Speaker 1: what it would do is it would explore a maze 612 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 1: and quote unquote remember where it comes from. It was 613 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,879 Speaker 1: it was going after some little metal cheese bits. I think. 614 00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:33,080 Speaker 1: So the the way this mouse would go through the 615 00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,160 Speaker 1: maze is it would go down a pathway and whenever 616 00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:39,799 Speaker 1: the pathway would branch, it would start to rotate. Yeah, 617 00:35:39,800 --> 00:35:41,799 Speaker 1: so it would take one and then it would, uh, 618 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,040 Speaker 1: it could backtrack if it went down an incorrect route, right, 619 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:47,920 Speaker 1: and then it could take the path it had not 620 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:49,600 Speaker 1: taken as opposed to you know, if this were just 621 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,520 Speaker 1: an electronic mouse that had some collision detection, it wouldn't 622 00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: It could potentially just go back and forth down the 623 00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:58,920 Speaker 1: same little pathway forever. Yeah, but this was branching that 624 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,879 Speaker 1: this one knew. Okay, well I already took the path 625 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:04,440 Speaker 1: that's on the right, so I have to take the 626 00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:06,759 Speaker 1: path that's on the left. So it's pretty cool that 627 00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,239 Speaker 1: he built this thing, you know, just for the fun 628 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:14,240 Speaker 1: of it. He built it also probably my my favorite 629 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:19,200 Speaker 1: robotic piece of his eight juggling robot, a bounce juggling 630 00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,960 Speaker 1: robot to be precise, bounce juggling robot that like w 631 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,400 Speaker 1: C Fields to be even more precise. Yeah, it was 632 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,600 Speaker 1: like having a like, imagine a drumhead, right, and the 633 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,920 Speaker 1: drumhead allows things that are dropped on it, like a 634 00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,439 Speaker 1: ball bearing to be bounced on it. And then two 635 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:39,080 Speaker 1: little uh angled platforms that are serving his hands that 636 00:36:39,160 --> 00:36:43,200 Speaker 1: are bouncing this again, these little these balls. Yeah, and 637 00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:45,200 Speaker 1: it just kept it going in a in a bounced 638 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:47,960 Speaker 1: juggling pattern perfectly. And he basically made it out of 639 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,640 Speaker 1: like erector set pieces. Yeah, you know, just like you do. 640 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:52,520 Speaker 1: And then he wrote a paper on the dynamics of 641 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,560 Speaker 1: keeping multiple objects in the air simultaneously. It's pretty famous 642 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:57,960 Speaker 1: within the juggling community. I tried to read it what 643 00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:00,600 Speaker 1: I actually wrote, how Juggling works for how stuff works 644 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:02,759 Speaker 1: dot com. In fact, if you go to that that 645 00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:05,319 Speaker 1: article on how stuff works and you look up how 646 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:09,880 Speaker 1: juggling works, there's a video of me juggling in that article. 647 00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:11,759 Speaker 1: I still I still say it because I juggle a 648 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:13,440 Speaker 1: little bit. I still say that we really need to 649 00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:17,680 Speaker 1: do a video of all Right, I juggled torches in mine. 650 00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:21,000 Speaker 1: You're ready to pick those up? Okay, well, well we'll 651 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,279 Speaker 1: start small. Uh. He also made a robot that could 652 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,640 Speaker 1: solve a Rubic's cube, which is pretty amazing. I mean, 653 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:31,239 Speaker 1: obviously that needs I can't either. I know there are 654 00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: algorithms for how to solve it the most efficiently, and 655 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:36,880 Speaker 1: I've seen people who are really good at who just 656 00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:40,239 Speaker 1: like it's like it's like magic. You know. The way 657 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,840 Speaker 1: I saw a Rubik's cube is by peeling the stickers 658 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: off and then replacing them properly. I cheat, but yeah, no. 659 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:49,319 Speaker 1: He he created a robot that could follow these algorithms 660 00:37:49,320 --> 00:37:52,040 Speaker 1: and also just recognize what the pattern was on any 661 00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:54,320 Speaker 1: given side, so it could, you know, create the rules 662 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,120 Speaker 1: that needed to solve it. UM and he made a 663 00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:01,680 Speaker 1: calculator that worked with Roman numerals. It was called throwback, 664 00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:06,160 Speaker 1: which stood for a thrifty Roman numerical backward looking computer. 665 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:11,399 Speaker 1: UM also rocket powered Frisbees and motorized poco sticks. Yes, 666 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 1: the motorized pogo stick. I was thinking, like, again, that 667 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,040 Speaker 1: sounds terrible. If the unicycle hadn't killed me already, that 668 00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:23,120 Speaker 1: certainly would. He built the ultimate machine. My favorite machine 669 00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:26,120 Speaker 1: of all time is the ultimate machine. All right, tell 670 00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,839 Speaker 1: us about it, Jonathan. All right. Now, imagine you have 671 00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,520 Speaker 1: before you a box, and on that box you can 672 00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,120 Speaker 1: see the outline of a trap door, and the only 673 00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:39,280 Speaker 1: other really interesting feature on this box is a simple 674 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:43,000 Speaker 1: switch has switched to off, and you push the switch 675 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,560 Speaker 1: to on. The trap door opens and a hand emerges 676 00:38:46,719 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: from beneath the trap door and hits the switch back 677 00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:52,200 Speaker 1: to the off position, with draws back inside and trap 678 00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:55,760 Speaker 1: door closes. That's it. That's it. You hit the switch 679 00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:57,920 Speaker 1: and the harm comes back out yet the switch, the 680 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,120 Speaker 1: arm comes back out. Uh. I want to share this 681 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:05,080 Speaker 1: video too. There's a video of a brilliant variation of 682 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:10,480 Speaker 1: the Ultimate Machine that is hysterically funny. It doesn't just 683 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,279 Speaker 1: do that like, it starts to do it so um. 684 00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,600 Speaker 1: It ends up at first looking like it's a variation 685 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,920 Speaker 1: on the Ultimate Machine, like oh, that's cute, But then 686 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,600 Speaker 1: it starts doing other things too, because this particular box 687 00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:22,640 Speaker 1: had wheels on it and can move autll the way, 688 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:24,719 Speaker 1: so it's starting to avoid the person who's trying to 689 00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:29,200 Speaker 1: hit the switch, or it would playback prerecorded messages saying 690 00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:31,839 Speaker 1: like hey, hands off, buddy, that kind of stuff and 691 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,719 Speaker 1: was really really entertaining. So we'll share that one as well. 692 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,800 Speaker 1: But you have to remember that that particular very entertaining 693 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:40,640 Speaker 1: machine is based off this thing that Claude Shannon built 694 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:42,600 Speaker 1: for no reason other than it tickled him just because 695 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:47,239 Speaker 1: he could. Um. He also had a collection of exotic unicycles, 696 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:50,000 Speaker 1: including some that were because he he was wondering, how 697 00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:53,200 Speaker 1: small could you make a unicycle before someone would be 698 00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,840 Speaker 1: unable to write it? Uh? For me, that's any size. 699 00:39:57,560 --> 00:39:59,839 Speaker 1: But but I think me too, that would be any size. 700 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,759 Speaker 1: Assuming that you are capable of writing a unicycle, how 701 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,320 Speaker 1: small could you go before you could no longer maintain 702 00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:08,759 Speaker 1: your balance? In fact, he had a couple that I've 703 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:12,640 Speaker 1: heard are essentially unwriteable. Uh. He also lectured on using 704 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:15,760 Speaker 1: information theory as an application to playing the stock market, 705 00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 1: though he never really published any work on this. He 706 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,440 Speaker 1: did do a lecture, but he didn't write a paper. 707 00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:23,320 Speaker 1: He also did really well in the stock market himself, 708 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,120 Speaker 1: although he wasn't necessarily employing information theory to do so. 709 00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:31,680 Speaker 1: He was investing in companies that friends of his. Yeah, 710 00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:36,280 Speaker 1: he made some very savvy stock purchases based on amazing 711 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:38,120 Speaker 1: work that his friends were doing. These are These are 712 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:41,160 Speaker 1: the people who were inventing like the basic components of 713 00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,360 Speaker 1: computers and electronics, going on to form their own companies, 714 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:46,799 Speaker 1: and he would invest in those and then they ended 715 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:50,120 Speaker 1: up being these these enormous companies we know today. So 716 00:40:50,239 --> 00:40:54,080 Speaker 1: he did quite well. Um, and there's no Nobel Prize 717 00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,279 Speaker 1: for mathematics, which is why Claude Shanna never won one, right, 718 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:01,200 Speaker 1: but he certainly did win a number, I mean, probably 719 00:41:01,239 --> 00:41:03,799 Speaker 1: way too numerous to mention here awards, but but one 720 00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:06,560 Speaker 1: that we wanted to mention it is the very first 721 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:10,440 Speaker 1: Kyoto Prize, which was created in Japan to award honors 722 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,080 Speaker 1: to contributions in mathematics. Essentially, it was supposed to be 723 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:16,400 Speaker 1: the Nobel Prize for mathematics, right, and this was all 724 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,120 Speaker 1: the way in the nineteen eighties, and this came into invention. Yeah, 725 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 1: the very first one went to Claude Shannon, and from 726 00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:25,200 Speaker 1: what I understand, it actually came with an even larger 727 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: cash prize than the Nobel Prize does. So so if 728 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:30,719 Speaker 1: you if you feel like he was he was snubbed 729 00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 1: because Nobel Prizes don't recognize mathematics, fear not, the Kyoto 730 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,880 Speaker 1: Prize had him covered. So I hope you guys, uh, 731 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:41,040 Speaker 1: if you had not ever heard of Claude Shannon before, 732 00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:43,319 Speaker 1: I hope you learned something in this episode, because he 733 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,479 Speaker 1: really did seem to be a remarkable person. In multiple ways. 734 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:49,480 Speaker 1: I mean, this guy seems like the kind of professor 735 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,640 Speaker 1: I would have absolutely adored um. But then you know, 736 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:56,520 Speaker 1: I like all of my professors who had lots of personality, 737 00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: and we're unafraid of coming across as a little unusual 738 00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:04,719 Speaker 1: or yeah those are my favorite. Yeah, so awesome. And 739 00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:08,480 Speaker 1: I hope if there are any other really important figures 740 00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,279 Speaker 1: in technology that you would love to hear us cover, 741 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:13,960 Speaker 1: you should let us know. Send us a message you 742 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:16,520 Speaker 1: can in says an email that addresses tech stuff at 743 00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:19,359 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, or drop us a line 744 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:22,520 Speaker 1: on Tumbler, Twitter or Facebook, or handle it. All three 745 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:26,279 Speaker 1: is text stuff hs W, and we will talk to 746 00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:32,920 Speaker 1: you again really soon for more on this and thousands 747 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:44,920 Speaker 1: of other topics. Because it has to works dot Com