A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
Written by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni
Narrated by Jonathan Yen
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Now, Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman bring Claude Shannon's story to life. It's the story of a small-town boy from Michigan whose career stretched from the age of room-sized computers powered by gears and string to the age of the Apple desktop. It's the story of the origins of information 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. 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 explores the life and times of this singular innovator and creative genius.
Rob Goodman
Rob Goodman is an assistant professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he teaches and writes on topics such as populism, rhetoric, and the history of political thought. He previously worked as a speechwriter in the US House and Senate. He is an award-winning author and coauthor of several books, including Words on Fire: Eloquence and Its Conditions. He lives in Toronto with his family.
Related to A Mind at Play
Related audiobooks
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thinking Machines: The Quest for Artificial Intelligence--and Where It's Taking Us Next Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Isaac Newton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Conquering the Electron: The Geniuses, Visionaries, Egomaniacs, and Scoundrels Who Built Our Electronic Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Craftsman Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Artificial Intelligence: From Medieval Robots to Neural Networks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Einstein's Fridge: How the Difference Between Hot and Cold Explains the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Biography & Memoir For You
Twisted Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Blood and Ash Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fairy Tale Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Divine Rivals: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Local Woman Missing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dead Zone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Later Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Five Years: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When No One Is Watching: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elon Musk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If He Had Been with Me Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Mind at Play
62 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely wonderful! Introverts will find a kindred spirit in Shannon. I am not a mathematician or engineer—to enjoy the book does not require expertise in these fields—but anyone with scientific interests will gain a lot from reading it. Claude’s fingerprints are all over the modern world, and it was inspiring to read about him. He has been unfairly forgotten as a hero of the computer. Cannot recommend enough!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maxwell, Einstein, Turing, Shannon. These are names that define the Information Age. Those that do not know these names are missing the greatest story in science that developed since the 1880's. The very fact that I can write this review and post it to the internet is a testament to their theoretical understanding and their influence on countless engineers who developed the technology for common use. Their spirit of rapt curiosity is one to draw inspiration from.Have you ever noticed static noise on your telephone calls? If you can't think of the last time there was a scratchy sound coming through your earpiece, thank Claude Shannon.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The book excitedly repeats itself, fawning over the subject matter. The guy is amazing, I know, that's why I even considered reading this. I know it's just a biography but it's too light on Shannon's technical work.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Claude Shannon lived a life of curiosity. I enjoyed the chapters mentioning about Bell Labs. I would recommend this book to Information theory, CS, Mathematicians or people looking to understand Scientists
Deus Vult
Gottfried - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent read. There were a few slow spots but plow through because the book is full of gems. A real delight to learn about Claude Shannon.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this biography of the life of Claude Shannon, and in the process, I learned more about his lesser-known accomplishments: the first wearable computer, his works on chess (including a chess-playing "computer") and cryptography, and his early work on digital logic. His eccentricities also made for interesting anecdotes: the love of unicycles, juggling, and gadgets. A fun and easy read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5For years, I have been reading references to Claude Shannon because of his involvement in so many critical developments in science, communications, Bell Labs, and even the stock market. About his sense of humor or his riding a unicycle through Bell Labs – while juggling (a favorite hobby). And about his groundbreaking, earth-shaking realization that all communication, from voice to music to documents to photos – is all data and could be treated the same way. Without this insight, I could not post this review today. But there was no way to get my fill of Claude Shannon – no biographies or documentaries of an American genius who lived until 2001! A Mind At Play begins to fill this yawning gap (and it seems a documentary is finally in the works as well). Shannon was a natural. He simply did. Whatever caught his eye. He invented machines all his life, designed them, machined them, theorized their optimization, and cleared the air on numerous topics that concerned them. His great gift to us was his reductionism. He could look at a problem and strip away the redundancies, the tangents, the superfluities – and the noise. Especially the noise. The bare core that was left was now addressable and solvable. With that, he could add back the other factors as needed. It made his solutions elegant. This clarity of vision is dispiritingly rare. That a man of his many other abilities had it has benefitted the world disproportionately.He was in it for the intellectual challenge. While other scientists won Nobel Prizes, fame, fortune, privilege and rank, Shannon shunned the limelight and kept working (and playing). “Down to Earth” doesn’t begin to describe him. His toy room served him to the end. He hated speeches, and preferred playing the clarinet (or chess) to lecturing. This was in no way a stock-standard scientist. His brilliance was evident to everyone throughout his long life. And he worked with all of the most brilliant. My favorite story in the book is when his young daughter brought out a package of toothpicks and dropped them all over the wood plank floor. Rather than scold her or instruct her to clean it right up, Shannon observed: ”You know, you could calculate the value of pi from that.” I also liked the index finger he installed in the basement toy room. When his wife wanted him to come upstairs, she pulled the cord in the kitchen and the finger curled upward. This man makes for a fascinating biography.Among his great discoveries was how to eliminate noise. Noise in the transmission of data corrupts it, making the message incomplete, wrong or unintelligible. Shannon broke down elements to their smallest, and assigned them numeric labels. If you gave (say) a letter a two digit equivalent, you would get a wrong letter if one of the digits was blurred by noise. By giving them longer strings of digits, they could tolerate noise and still be correct at the receiving end. This sort of outside the box thinking revolutionized countless industries.We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Sori & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt.David Wineberg