---
slug: paper-shannon-c-e-1948-a-mathematical-theory-of-communication-bell-system-technical-jo
title: Shannon, C.E. (1948). A Mathematical Theory of Communication
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/paper-shannon-c-e-1948-a-mathematical-theory-of-communication-bell-system-technical-jo
---

## What the work establishes

Claude Shannon's 1948 paper defines communication as reproduction of a selected message at another point. It measures information via logarithmic functions of possibility counts. The paper introduces entropy as average uncertainty in a source.

Core result: information capacity of channels and sources follows from statistical structure. Noise limits reliable transmission rate.

## Exact primary passages

"The fundamental problem of communication is that of reproducing at one point either exactly or approximately a message selected at another point." (Introduction, Bell System Technical Journal, Vol. 27, p. 379).

"If the number of messages in the set is finite then this number or any monotonic function of this number can be regarded as a measure of the information produced when one message is chosen from the set, all choices being equally likely. As was pointed out by Hartley the most natural choice is the logarithmic function." (Introduction, p. 379).

Entropy formula appears as H = −∑ p_i log p_i for discrete sources with probabilities p_i. Channel capacity C = lim (1/T) log N(T) for noiseless discrete channels.

## Convergence patterns touched

The work quantifies uncertainty reduction. It links to pattern formation through redundancy and statistical structure in messages. Entropy bridges to thermodynamic concepts via shared mathematics of disorder measures. It supports scalable information structures from energy flows to encoded memory.

It evidences flow networks in communication systems and bounded constraints on signals.

## Distance from full synthesis

The paper stays at the level of measurable information flow and structure. It does not address life, mind, or the reader inside the system. It supplies a mechanistic foundation for the early ladder steps: difference to flow to structure to memory.

It supplies no account of self-reference or Mirror Layer.

## Honest limits and disconfirming edges

The model treats semantics as irrelevant. "These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem." (Introduction, p. 379). It assumes idealized discrete or continuous channels. Real biological systems add layers of embodiment and interpretation absent here.

Reductionist objections note the theory measures transmission, not meaning or function. No empirical biological data appears in the work.

## Sibling links

See /a/oip-the-ladder for ladder placement. See /a/oip-principles for protocol mapping of information objects.
