John Larry Kelly, Jr

John Larry Kelly, Jr. (1923-1965), was a scientist who worked at Bell Labs. He is best known for formulating the Kelly criterion, an algorithm for maximally investing money.

He was born in Corsicana, Texas. He spent four years in the US Navy as a pilot during World War II before entering the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated with a PhD in Physics in 1953.

Speech synthesis: Enter Hal 9000

In 1962 Kelly created one of the most famous moments in the history of Bell Labs by using an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer vocoder recreated the song Daisy Bell, with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke of A Space Odyssey (film) fame was coincidentally visiting friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility at the time of this remarkable speech synthesis demonstration and was so impressed that he used it in the climactic scene of his novel and screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey,Arthur C. Clarke online Biography where the HAL 9000 computer sings the same song as he is being put to sleep by astronaut Dave Bowman.Bell Labs: Where "HAL" First Spoke (Bell Labs Speech Synthesis website)

The Las Vegas connection: Information theory and its applications to Game theory

John Kelly was a remarkable character. Apart from being a Physicist he embodied certain stereotypical Texan character attributes being a tough guy, recreational gunslinger and a daredevil pilot all at the same time. He was also an associate of Claude Shannon at Bell Labs. Together they developed a Game theory type method based on the principles of information theory developed by Shannon.John Kelly by William Poundstone website It is reported that Shannon and his wife Betty went to Las Vegas with M.I.T. mathematician Ed Thorp, and made very successful forays in roulette and blackjack using this method, later called the Kelly criterion, making a fortune as detailed in the book Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone.Poundstone, William: Fortune's Formula : The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street Shannon and Thorp also applied the same theory to the stock market with even better results.William Pounstone website

Tragic Death

Kelly died tragically of a stroke on a Manhattan sidewalk at the young age of 41 in 1965.Business Week website article: Get Rich: Here's The Math It is also reported that he never used his own criterion to make money.

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