Mathematics & Algorithms · Recorded milestone

Error-correcting codes

Recorded year1950

Richard Hamming at Bell Labs invents codes that find and fix flipped bits; their descendants protect CDs, QR codes and signals from deep-space probes.

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Built on

Information theoryRecorded · 1948enables

Led to

Voyager probesRecorded · 1977enables
Compact discRecorded · 1982enables
QR codeRecorded · 1994enables
Error-corrected quantum computerForecast · ~2030enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.