Claude Shannon Quotes

“We know the past but cannot control it. We control the future but cannot know it.”

“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans. And I am rooting for the machines.”

“I am very seldom interested in applications. I am more interested in the elegance of a problem. Is it a good problem, an interesting problem?”

“The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.”

“The enemy knows the system.”

“A few first rate research papers are preferable to a large number that are poorly conceived or half-finished.”

“We know the past but cannot control it. We control the future but cannot know it.”

“I visualize a time when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans. And I am rooting for the machines.”

“I am very seldom interested in applications. I am more interested in the elegance of a problem. Is it a good problem, an interesting problem?”

“The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point.”

“A few first rate research papers are preferable to a large number that are poorly conceived or half-finished. The latter are no credit to their writers and a waste of time to their readers.”

“This duality can be pursued further and is related to a duality between past and future and the notions of control and knowledge.”

“Almost every problem that you come across is befuddled with all kinds of extraneous data of one sort or another; and if you can bring this problem down into the main issues, you can see more clearly what you're trying to do.”

“My greatest concern was what to call it. I thought of calling it 'information,' but the word was overly used, so I decided to call it 'uncertainty.”

“The enemy knows the system.”

“Another approach for a given problem is to try to restate it in just as many different forms as you can.”