(Hardcover)
Few books have had as lasting an impact or played as important a role in our modern world as The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Claude Shannon's major precept, that all communication is essentially digital, is now so commonplace among the modern digitalia that many wonder why Shannon needed to state such an obvious axiom.
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March 04, 2003: Where it all began.---The book grew out from an epic scientific paper in 1948, but luckly its author Shannon chose a light touch and a gentle delivery in his presentation. The paper became a book, with a 1949 first edition, which is now a classic, and which has been reprinted a number of times since, ending with the present lovely 1998 edition. It is still the place where readers can learn the essentials, including the two equations of information theory, that are now named after Claude Shannon. And more importantly incisive explanation of the reasoning leading up to the equations. What was the thinking that produced this landmark of theory!