2017年雅思考试阅读热门资讯每日读(29)

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　　HInformation Theory信息论is one of the few scientific fields fortunate enough to have an identifiable可以确认的beginning - Claude Shannon's 1948 paper. The story of the evolution发展, 演变of how it progressed进步from a single theoretical理论的paper to a broad广泛的field that has redefined重新定义our world is a fascinating one. It provides the opportunity to study the social, political, and technological interactions相互作用that have helped guide its development and define阐释its trajectory轨迹, and gives us insight洞察into how a new field evolves发展.

　　We often hear Claude Shannon called the father of the Digital Age. In the beginning of his paper Shannon acknowledges承认the work done before him, by such pioneers先驱as Harry Nyquist and RVL. Hartley at Bell Labs贝尔实验室in the 1920s. Though their influence影响 was profound深远的, the work of those early pioneers was limited and focused on their own particular独特的 applications应用. It was Shannon’s unifying统一 vision视力,先见之明,想象力,景象 that revolutionized使革命化 communication传达信息, and spawned使产生 a multitude of多数 communication research that we now define as the field of Information Theory.

　　One of those key concepts概念 was his definition of the limit for channel capacity通路容量. Similar to Moore’s Law, the Shannon limit can be considered a self-fulfilling完成 prophecy预言能力. It is a benchmark基准 that tells people what can be done, and what remains to be done – compelling强制性的 them to achieve it.

　　Information Theory was not just a product of the work of Claude Shannon. It was the result of crucial 关键性的contributions贡献 made by many distinct独特的 individuals个体, from a variety of多种的 backgrounds, who took his ideas and expanded延伸 upon them. Indeed the diversity差异/多样性 and directions of their perspectives观点/看法 and interests shaped the direction of Information Theory.