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Alan Kay: Shannon gave us a way of dealing with noisy channels [video]

151 points · 36 comments · behoove

  1. MarkusWandel · · focus · HN ↗
    Did he though? TMK Shannon did specifically not give a way to deal with noisy channels, no. He invented a way to quantify what could be sent on a noisy channel if you figure out the optimal way to do it. This is very similar to "no matter what you figure out about faster travel, you can't go faster than light in a vacuum".

    Calculating the limit is easy with Shannon's theorem. Approaching it in practice is hard.

    1. ironqcold · · focus · HN ↗
      Fair distinction
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