Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/April 30

I visualize a time when we will be to robots as dogs are to humans. ... I’m rooting for the machines. Today is Claude Shannon’s birthday. Before all software was free, when there was not even any concept of software yet, he developed theoretical foundations of how to even represent and process information, developed digital circuits to solve logical problems and even the basic concepts of programming. His groundbreaking works – formulated in the 1950s and ’60s – represent some of the most basic theoretical foundations for how to efficiently and securely move information through space and time, establishing the whole field of information theory and leading to revolutionary changes in the storage and transmission of data.H. Peter Alesso, Craig F. Smith: Connections – Patterns of Discovery, pages 80–82: Claude Shannon April 29 May 1