The Mathematical Theory of Communication
by Claude E Shannon, Warren Weaver

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Book Reviews of The Mathematical Theory of Communication

Book Review: Arguably, the most important paper EVER written!
Summary: 5 Stars

... All to often, famous theorists are relegated to "cult-like" obscurity. Persons like Shannon, Gallager, Forney, Komolgorov may be legendary within a cult-circle of die-hard communication theorists, but are relegated to unfortunate obscurity by the masses. It's rather unfortunate, with todays advanced communication systems, and techniques of coding (Turbo codes, modified LDPC codes, etc..)which push the boundaries to the ultimate limits as defined by Shannon.... that more people (both engineers, and laymen alike) don't recognize the names of early pioneers who started the revolution, and who's theories are the basis for many of our modern luxuries which allow us to download information at such rapid rates.

People often underestimate the deepness of Shannons' work,due to Shannon's writing style. He was one of those rare writers (somewhat like Forney, or Massey) who can actually explain complicated subjects using mere words, without the need for prettying the theory up with fancy math. Comparing the equation filled textbooks of today, versus Shannon's work, one might get the impression that Shannon's work was simplistic. I think it's clear to anyone whos studied his work, that IT WAS NOT SIMPLISTIC. Obviously, there was alot of "behind the scenes" math which Shannon had to go through to actually codify his many theorems. Just because Shannon did not show extensive derivations for each one of his theorems does not mean that he was not a good mathemetician..It merely means that he did not want to write a 1,000 page paper... he wanted to keep it simple (as was the customary writing style in the early to mid 1900's).

In short.. This book should be on YOUR shelf if you dont already own it, and if you are interested in information theory, and the deeper underpinnings of digital communications. I give the book 5 stars, not because it's any kind of elegant literary masterpiece; simply because it is based on the most important paper ever written. ... S.A. Hoffman -

Summary of The Mathematical Theory of Communication

Engineering Books

• Subjects > Professional & Technical > Engineering
• Education & Reference > Words & Language
• Science & Math > Mathematics
• Physics > Mathematical Physics