alt Hacker NewsSome more fun facts about Claude Shannon, from this New Yorker article (https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/claude-s...):
He built a flame-throwing trumpet and a rocket-powered Frisbee. He built a chess-playing automaton that, after its opponent moved, made witty remarks. Inspired by the late artificial-intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, he designed what was dubbed the Ultimate Machine: flick the switch to “On” and a box opens up; out comes a mechanical hand, which flicks the switch back to “Off” and retreats inside the box.
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FuriouslyAdrift • 11/08/2024
Ah yes, the "Useless Machine". Fun little thing to build...
My favorite fun fact is that, sandwiched between his revolutionary work on circuits and information theory, his actual PhD dissertation was on genetics; like something kind of unrelated to the rest of his life's work and largely forgotten. As a current PhD candidate, I think about that a lot.