The mathematical theory of communication

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1. morleytjAug 2025
   I 100% agree.

   I think Shannon's Mathematical Theory of Communication is so incredibly well written and accessible that anyone interested in information theory should just start with the real foundational work rather than lists of equations, it really is worth the time to dig into it.

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2. cbm-vic-20Aug 2025
   Claude Shannon's "The Mathematical Theory of Communication" (not mentioned by name, but referenced in the PDF) is a really pleasant little read. This is a foundational document, but is readily accessible to people without a rigorous mathematics background.

   https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2296213W/The_mathematical_th...

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3. soulofmischiefDec 2024
   No. You're confused about what constitutes as "communication". Communication does not mean conversation. The knee isn't conversing with you, but information is absolutely being communicated.

   I would recommend familiarizing yourself with information theory and systems theory.

   From the opening line on the Wikipedia article for Communication:

   > Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information. Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not only transmits meaning but also creates it.

   If you argue from a position ignorant of information theory, it might seem that a knee jerk is not communication. But read through Shannon's A Mathematical Theory of Communication and you will understand differently.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_theory

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_theory

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4. sva_Jun 2024
   Good evening folks,

   I've recently grown an interest in classical literature and read some rather old books (like the works of Dostoyevsky for example.)

   I found these so great that I figured it might also be worth it to look at some classical papers. Having read Shannon's 'A mathematical theory of communication', which I found very accessible, I've grown to wonder what other 'classical', and perhaps influential papers I haven't read yet. I just never got around to do it as older works often feel 'stale' to me.

   So I'm wondering, what papers can you guys recommend as a 'must-read' for the curious mind? I'm not even just asking about computer science in particular, anything that seems interesting might qualify.

   I'd love to get some recommendations.

   I'm also open to book recommendations.

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5. sargstuffJun 2024
   A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948) by C. E. Shannon [0][1]

   Information theory: a Tutorial Introduction (2nd Edition) by James V Stone bit more modern introduction/hands-on approach.

   -----

   [0] : paper : https://people.math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/others/shanno...

   current book version of paper is 16th addition.

   [1] : Why [0] matters : https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-claude-shannons-informati...

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6. dupedMar 2024
   And for those even deeper into the theory, one question you might ask is, if we can divide spectrum and time to get some bandwidth B per channel, how many bits can we send/receive over a distinct channel?

   The answer is C = Blog2(1 + S/N) where B is the bandwidth and S/N is the signal to noise ratio determined by the environment (how much noise is present relative to the signal being transmitted). The crazy thing is this was proven in the 1940s and everyone interested should go read The Mathematical Theory of Communication by Claude Shannon. This is referred to as the Shannon-Hartley theorem, and it determines the channel capacity (C, in bits/second) of any communication channel in the presence of noise.

   The math concepts might seem heady, but it's actually fairly approachable and available online. It's fascinating that the fundamentals were proven out in one work nearly 80 years ago by a handful of people, and the math is not that bad.

   The thing that makes this nuts is that if an engineer picks some target bitrate for a device, say a cellphone watching video, they can work backwards to determine the channel capacity they need, do some experiments to figure out noise, and then determine what the target their modem protocol needs to reach to be suitable. And this is how we get 5G and fiber or whatever comes next.

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