Claude Elwood Shannon 1916-2001

That handsome fella there has a lot to do with my mood this week. In fact, I'd say he'll have quite the influence on me for the rest of 2009, maybe even the rest of my life! Claude E. Shannon was the mathematician responsible for information theory; he was also a great utilizer of Boolean logic in experiments with electromechanical relays, which became the foundation of practical digital circuit design, the basic concept underlying all modern electronic digital computers (blah, blah, blah: it's a concept I only sort-of understand--I think it had something to do with old timey phone circuitry and using algebra to get electronic relays to perform logic...or something...) The guy hung out with Albert Einstein and did the first experiments with artificial intelligence so...yeah, total smartypants. I guess you can thank him for that fancy computer you're using right now.

Anyway, I'm all set to take my big, make-or-break comprehensive exam for my library science masters degree (November 20th!), and I'm in the process of going back over 3 years worth of Li-Sci-related notes. My favorite brain-scrambler from this degree program came courtesy of Claude Shannon, on the day in my second semester when I found out that I had no real idea of what "Information" really is. It's one of those ambiguous terms that people do seem to use interchangeably: is it data? knowledge? truth? wisdom?? is it a physical thing, ethereal, an electrical impulse that exists only in your brain?? Can information be created? Think about it too long and hard and you'll find yourself questioning everything. Information-with-a-capitol-"I" is an ever present theme in the program, and it's a concept ready-made for the brand of OCD over-thinkers who tend to gravitate towards the field.

There are about 5 major scholars who are ubiquitous in the Li-Sci literature, and they all disagree with what information really "is". I guess the debate is librarianship's own special brand of self-indulgent, professional navel-gazing. I'm not totally sure it even matters what "it" "is" (and even worse: I'm not sure if that thought is going to make me a lousy librarian!). So I'll be thinking a lot about Claude Shannon in the next couple of months, and I imagine he'll surface again sometime in the future--he's a spectre that looms over all library school students: a spooky, transcendental math nerd who makes you wonder if you've been callously missing the point your entire life.