# Semantics Outside the Engineering Problem by Claude Shannon > "Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem." > **— Claude Shannon**, *A Mathematical Theory of Communication, 1948* ## Sources and Context - **Primary paper:** [Claude E. Shannon, ‘A Mathematical Theory of Communication’](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x), *Bell System Technical Journal* 27 (1948), pp. 379–423 and 623–656; [readable corrected reprint](https://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/yry/readings/general/shannon1948.pdf), introduction, p. 1. The published Reminder restores the preceding sentence that defines the semantic aspects to which Shannon refers. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Bell Labs and the Distributed Architecture of American Power|Bell Labs and the Distributed Architecture of American Power]] - **Article:** [[articles/Information Persistence in Complex Systems|Information Persistence in Complex Systems]] - **Article:** [[articles/An Order of Operation|An Order of Operation]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Information Theory|Information Theory]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Claude Shannon|Claude Shannon]] - [[wiki/A Mathematical Theory of Communication|A Mathematical Theory of Communication]] - [[wiki/Information Theory|Information Theory]] - [[wiki/Semantic Preservation|Semantic Preservation]] - [[wiki/Information Inheritance|Information Inheritance]] - [[wiki/Digital Continuity|Digital Continuity]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "Frequently the messages have meaning; that is they refer to or are correlated according to some system with certain physical or conceptual entities. These semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem." — Claude Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication, 1948 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-claude-shannon-semantics-outside-engineering-problem ```