Rutang Thanawalla

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@ShriramKMurthi @joomy Careful with that - or you won’t be allowed to get back in if and when you across the “American ocean” next time 😉

[Tech with Mak @techNmak]

In 1948, a 32-year-old at Bell Labs published a paper nobody fully understood.

Engineers found it too mathematical. Mathematicians found it too engineering-focused. One prominent mathematician reviewed it negatively.

That paper - "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", became the founding document of the digital age.

The man was Claude Shannon. Father of Information Theory.

At 21, he wrote the most important master's thesis of the 20th century.

Working at MIT on an early mechanical computer, Shannon noticed its relay switches had exactly two states - open or closed. He had just taken a philosophy course introducing Boolean algebra, which also operated on two values: true and false.

Nobody had ever connected these two things.

His 1937 thesis proved that Boolean algebra and electrical circuits are mathematically identical, and that any logical operation could be built from simple switches.

Howard Gardner called it "possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century."

Every digital computer ever built traces back to this insight.

At 29, he proved that perfect encryption exists.

During WWII, Shannon worked on classified cryptography at Bell Labs. His work contributed to SIGSALY, the secure voice system used for confidential communications between Roosevelt and Churchill.

In a classified 1945 memorandum, he mathematically proved the one-time pad provides perfect secrecy, unbreakable not just computationally, but provably, permanently, against an adversary with infinite power.

When declassified in 1949, it transformed cryptography from an art into a science. It laid the foundations for DES, AES, and every modern encryption standard.

At 32, he defined what information is.

His 1948 paper introduced one equation:
H = −Σ p(x) log p(x)

Shannon entropy. The average uncertainty in a probability distribution. The minimum bits required to encode a message.

Three things followed:

> He defined the bit - the fundamental unit of all information. His colleague John Tukey coined the name.

> He proved the channel capacity theorem, every communication channel has a maximum rate of reliable transmission. You can approach it. You can never exceed it.

> He unified telegraph, telephone, and radio into a single mathematical framework for the first time.

Robert Lucky of Bell Labs called it the greatest work "in the annals of technological thought."

Where his equation lives in AI today:

Cross-entropy loss - the function training every classifier and language model, is derived directly from H. Decision tree splits use information gain, which is H applied to data. Perplexity, the standard LLM evaluation metric, is an exponentiation of cross-entropy.

Every time a neural network trains, Shannon's formula runs inside it.

He also built the first AI learning device.

In 1950, Shannon built Theseus, a mechanical mouse that navigated a maze through trial and error, learned the correct path, and repeated it perfectly. Mazin Gilbert of Bell Labs said: "Theseus inspired the whole field of AI."

That same year he published the first paper on programming a computer to play chess. He co-organized the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop, the founding event of AI as a field.

The man:
He rode a unicycle through Bell Labs hallways while juggling. He built a flame-throwing trumpet, a rocket-powered Frisbee, and Styrofoam shoes to walk on the lake behind his house.

He called his home Entropy House.

When asked what motivated him: "I was motivated by curiosity. Never by the desire for financial gain. I just wondered how things were put together."

In 1985, he appeared unexpectedly at a conference in Brighton. The crowd mobbed him for autographs. Persuaded to speak at the banquet, he talked briefly, then pulled three balls from his pockets and juggled instead.

One engineer said: "It was as if Newton had showed up at a physics conference."

He died in 2001 after a decade with Alzheimer's, the cruel irony of information slowly leaving the mind of the man who defined what information was.

Claude, the AI model, is named after Claude Shannon, the mathematician who laid the foundation for the digital world we rely on today.

[BBC Sport @BBCSport]

Look what it meant to Josh Kerr! 🌟🇬🇧

He smashed a generational world record for the men's mile - which had stood for the last 27 years!

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@ShriramKMurthi Good to know ! Stay safe!

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@DjokerNole 😂

[Test Match Special @bbctms]

🏆 INDIA ARE WORLD CUP WINNERS 🏆

History is made in Navi Mumbai as the women's side win the competition for the very first time. 🇮🇳

#BBCCricket #CWC25 #INDvSA

[BCCI Women @BCCIWomen]

𝐂.𝐇.𝐀.𝐌.𝐏.𝐈.𝐎.𝐍.𝐒 🏆

Congratulations to #TeamIndia on winning their maiden ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 🇮🇳

Take. A. Bow 🙌

#WomenInBlue | #CWC25 | #Final | #INDvSA

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@Richmondcricket @WarwickshireCCC @DukesEducation And what a fine 41 he scored looking as confident as ever, helping @WarwickshireCCC avoid a follow-on in the process.

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@Tesco : shocking behaviour by one of your online grocery delivery drivers. Walked off with my entire online delivery because I was a couple of minutes opening the door. Do you train your delivery drivers at all?

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@Tesco how do I complain about an online grocery delivery driver who walked off with my entire grocery order because I was a little late opening the door?
He threw a temper tantrum, hurled some abuse at me and walked off. Please let me know how I can get the mater addressed?

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

https://t.co/Qq8G4JFigA

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@TanmayTTT

[Richmond Cricket @Richmondcricket]

A ton up for Tanmay! Well played lad! The 1’s are 248/3 with 7 overs remaining v @EalingCricket @DukesEducation

[Richmond Cricket @Richmondcricket]

So proud of this young man’s progress. A richly deserved contract from a boy who started with us at the age of 7 years old! @DukesEducation

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@HPUK @eveningstandard Except @HPUK never delivers ! After deducting payments the laptop ordered was never delivered! Terrible post sales support too! Leaves customers fighting for delivery or their money back ! Something the management really need to look into!

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

@MichaelVaughan 😂😀

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

Remember the Beijing Olympics 2008? Usain Bolt winning the 100m by some distance, with time to show off ?
Didn’t think anybody would come close with such dominance … but here he is … Gout the rising star! 🌟

[Australian Athletics @AustralianAths]

SORRY WHAT?!👂 10.04? 👀

Teenage sensation Gout Gout gets the crowd roaring with a spectacular though windy 10.04 (+3.4) performance in his U18 100m Heat - the fourth fastest time in all conditions by an Australian in history.

Stay tuned for the final at 3:40pm AEST. Tune in to the Chemist Warehouse Australian All Schools Athletics Championships at: https://t.co/gGaXR3cIXo

#NextIsNow #AthleticsNation #VisitBrisbane #ThisIsQueensland #GoutGout

[Rutang Thanawalla @rutangt]

Cheeky Times headline below … Jos Buttler’s injury means Salt and Pepper in same England squad …
I would have gone with: Salt & Pepper applied to fill England captain’s injury wound 😛😂
https://t.co/Kta2gC43vM

[BBC Sport @BBCSport]

An Olympic icon 🥇🐐

Mijaín López is the first Olympian to win gold at five different Olympics in the same individual event.

#BBCOlympics #Paris2024 #Olympics

[Richmond Cricket @Richmondcricket]

A superb 146 run win for the 1’s v @TeddingtonCC. 5 wickets for Eric Botha, half centuries for Vansh, Tanmay and Charlie Nelson. @Chestertons

[The Cricketer @TheCricketerMag]

🇮🇳 INDIA WIN THE 2024 T20 WORLD CUP

#INDvSA | #T20WorldCupFinal2024