One 1948 paper invented the bit and gave every signal a speed limit

Claude Shannon's 'A Mathematical Theory of Communication' treated information itself as a measurable quantity for the first time, defining the 'bit' as its basic unit. It proved that any communication channel — telephone wire, radio signal, fiber-optic cable — has a maximum error-free data rate, a limit that still governs the design of every modem, Wi-Fi router and compression algorithm today.

— Claude Shannon, A Mathematical Theory of Communication — Bell System Technical Journal, 1948