Wiener, Norbert

Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas

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Not a book on how to invent
A book well worth reading

Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
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Book Description

Internationally honored for brilliant achievements throughout his career, author of Cybernetics, ExProdigy, and the essay God and Golem, Inc., which won the National Book Award in 1964, Norbert Wiener was no ordinary mathematician. With the ability to understand how things worked or might work at a very deep level, he linked his own mathematics to engineering and provided basic ideas for the design of all sorts of inventions, from radar to communications networks to computers to artificial limbs. Wiener had an abiding concern about the ethics guiding applications of theories he and other scientists developed. Years after he died, the manuscript for this book was discovered among his papers. The world of science has changed greatly since Wiener's day, and much of the change has been in the direction he warned against. Now published for the first time, this book can be read as a salutary corrective from the past and a chance to rethink the components of an environment that encourages inventiveness.

Wiener provides an engagingly written insider's understanding of the history of discovery and invention, emphasizing the historical circumstances that foster innovations and allow their application. His message is that truly original ideas cannot be produced on an assembly line, and that their consequences are often felt only at distant times and places. The intellectual and technological environment has to be right before the idea can blossom. The best course for society is to encourage the best minds to pursue the most interesting topics, and to reward them for the insights they produce. Wiener's comments on the problem of secrecy and the importance of the "free-lance" scientist are particularly pertinent today.

Steve Heims provides a brief history of Wiener's literary output and reviews his contributions to the field of invention and discovery. In addition, Heims suggests significant ways in which Wiener's ideas still apply to dilemmas facing the scientific and engineering communities of the 1990s. Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Customer Reviews:

Not a book on how to invent.......2005-02-21

This is a book on history and social conditions of invention. It should be categorized as a history book. As such,it is a book bordering on personal speculation. It would be much better if Wiener had stick to his own scientific field and written a book on how to invent or discover.

A book well worth reading.......2000-02-21

It has been said that all of science is concerned with ideas of patterns and all of mathametics is concerned with patterns of ideas. This book is a wonderful combination of both concepts. Norbert Wiener's towering intellect,knowledge of the history of science and ability to develop interesting associations between diverse areas of scientific activity, which on initial consideration appear unrelated, have produced a document which is grand in scope and remarkable in accomplishment. Moreover, his style of writing is, in my opinion, quite attractive. He has many axes to grind and once they are sharpened he applies them with enormous vigor. For example, he refers to the patent as "nothing more than a ticket to litigation". There is much to be learned from this book which can readily be applied to current areas of major importance such as molecular biology and solid state physics where new discoveries and their commercial applications clearly emulate societies previous experiences with our fundamental understanding of electricity and its application to both the transfer of power and of information.

The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Da Capo Paperback)

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important and relevant after half a century
A concerned and conscienscious genius
Another Wiener Gem
intriguing ideas made plain
prophetic book

The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Da Capo Paperback)
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306803208

Customer Reviews:

important and relevant after half a century.......2007-02-26

More than fifty years after its initial publication, this book remains as relevant and prophetic as it is brilliant and exhilarating.

To start, Wiener explains cybernetics in a way that the intelligent layperson can understand; he discusses how human beings, animals, and machines relate to one another through communication and feedback, thus becoming systems that limit or temporarily reverse the universal tendency toward disorganization (entropy). After establishing this framework, he discusses the implications of cybernetics on society. As he takes cybernetic theory to its logical conclusions--that is, accounting for the communication and feedback between human beings, machines, and the environment as a whole--his insights are shown to be profoundly humane and ultimately very inspiring.

This is no ordinary scientific text. There are discussions of Augustinian vs. Manichaean worldviews and their implications; the inevitable spread of dangerous information (such as that resulting in the atomic bomb) despite the strenuous efforts of governments; and the need not to rely on machines--non-human machines as well as "human machines" such as bureaucracies and corporations--to do the difficult work that human beings must do to remain ethical, responsible, and free.

All in all, this is an outstanding book written in lucid, beautiful prose. The book tells us as much about the systems that make up our world as it does about the brilliance, humility, and humanity of Wiener himself. No summary of this book, in blurb or review format, can possibly do justice to Wiener's achievement.

A concerned and conscienscious genius .......2005-07-04

Wiener was acutely aware of the promise and the danger of the new technolgies he was helping to invent. He worked very hard during the Second World War to help develop an anti- aircraft system which would make use of some of his mathematical and technical innovations. However the dropping of the Atomic Bomb turned him wholly against the military establishment and he became an insistent voice calling for regulation of military technologies.
His own vision of a humane society is one in which the cybernetic and feedback elements enable a better managing of the economy and society as a whole. And this when he again was very concerned about the possible destructive elements of technologies which would provide unreasonable means of control over individual human lives. He very much was concerned that a society in which machine- slaves produced everything would deprive humanity of its freedom and dignity.
In other words he saw great promise in the new technologies but also was concerned that might exercise a degree of control over humanity which would make them more harmful than beneficial.

Another Wiener Gem.......2001-12-28

Norbert Wiener was a child prodigy and Professor of Mathematics at MIT from 1919 until his death in 1964. He invented the science of cybernetics (look it up in the dictionary) and the guided missile but refused to help the military during the cold war. This volume includes an open letter published in the January, 1947 Atlantic Monthly magazine entitled "A Scientist Rebels" by Norbert Wiener. An introduction by Wiener biographer Steve J. Heims provides a context for Wiener's works.

If you are at all interested in cybernetics, and particularly interested in the effects it is having and will have on society, this book is must reading. Of course, this book does not approach Wiener's "God & Golem, Inc."(reviewed elsewhere in Amazon.com) for sheer brilliance, but then, what does, except perhaps the "Bahir."

intriguing ideas made plain.......2000-01-21

For those of us who cannot grasp the mathematical, technical version of Wiener's theory of messages in _Cybernetics_, this book is a wonderful stand-in. Wiener wrote this entirely equationless text as a populariztion of his ideas about humans and machines. this book is a fascinating piece of philosophy and sociology also, as Wiener expands his theories and brings them to bear on history, journalism etc. He never loses his scientific perspective though; this gives his writing and ideas a clarity freshness that is uncommon in theoretical writings about society. This is a great and important book

prophetic book.......1999-09-06

where could i find a reedited french traduction of this book published in 62 in france,second hand also ?

Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine

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Timeless work joins philosophy, computing, and mathematics
Welcome to the Machine
A fundamental law that is applicable to almost everything

Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Acclaimed one of the "seminal books . . . comparable in ultimate importance to . . . Galileo or Malthus or Rousseau or Mill", Cybernetics was judged by twenty-seven historians, economists, educators, and philosophers to be one of those books published during the "past four decades," which may have a substantial impact on public thought and action in the years ahead." -- Saturday Review

Customer Reviews:

Timeless work joins philosophy, computing, and mathematics.......2006-05-17

Norbert Wiener was interested in the means by which feedback could be communicated to help correct the problems that develop in an organism. In investigating this matter, Weiner investigates a number of topics that differentiate between mere computation and intelligence and the importance that information plays in both. This is the unifying theme of a book that seems to wander through many topics using philosophy, mathematics, and the theory of computation.

For example, in chapter one of the book, Wiener illustrates the basic difference between man and machine with a discussion of the concept of Newtonian versus Bergsonian time. He states that Newtonian time - that of high level physics phenomena- is reversible. Bergsonian time, the time of living organisms making their way against entropy is not reversible. Thus since Newtonian time is reversible nothing "new" happens, as opposed to the irreversible time of evolution and biology in which there is always something new.

He continues this idea in the chapter "Computing Machines and the Nervous System." In it, he defines the characteristics of computing machinery. He concludes that the brain, being irreversible, is thus an analog of a single run of a machine. Wiener also points out that many problems of human metabolism and reproduction are associated with the inability to receive and organize impulses and make them effective in the outer world. Thus Weiner ultimately concludes that to live effectively is to live with adequate information.

There are also chapters that are almost purely philisophical about the role of information in society. Then there are other chapters that present heavy-duty mathematics on such topics as representing a time series of known statistical parameters as Brownian motion in an attempt to solve communications problems in nonlinear situations. The mathematics in this book is presented with little or no background, so you are going to need other sources to understand what Wiener is trying to convey.

In summary, if you want an interesting read on the science and philosophy of artificial intelligence and the role of the machine this is one of the best out there. It still stands the test of time after nearly sixty years.

Welcome to the Machine.......2006-01-24

Why is everything called "cyber" (cyberspace, cyberpunk)? Because of this book from 1948 in which Norbert Wiener, a prof at MIT, coined the phrase "cybernetics," from the Greek word "kybernutos" meaning "governor." If you're tired of viewing your computer as a black box (the input goes in here, the output comes out there, and something mysterious happens inside), or if you wonder if the tech world has any relation to the natural world, check out this unusual book, which is rewarding on many different levels.

Find out why robotics, neural nets and artificial intelligence (AI) predate the PC and even the mainframe computer and are not a new development. Travel back to the days of the giant ENIAC when the computer seemed to be an idea on everyone's mind, simply waiting for advances in technology to make it a reality. But this very readable book goes further, as suggested in Wiener's subtitle: "Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine." Many specialists in various fields initially opposed this book because of Wiener's interdisciplinary approach, which broke down the hard and fast walls between various disciplines.

The vocabulary of this book has now become commonplace (we ask for "feedback" and refer to "systems" on a daily basis), but many of its ideas have yet to be discovered. I couldn't keep up with the math, but you don't need to to grasp the basic ideas or to enjoy Wiener's lucid and luminous style, which ranks among the best of popular science writing. Wiener also wrote a general market book, "The Human Use of Human Beings" to present some of these ideas to a wider audience. Some fifty years after its initial publication, this book still forms an inviting welcome to the machine.

A fundamental law that is applicable to almost everything.......2000-04-09

Two books, both written in the late 1940s stand out as contributing much to our understanding of the world around us. One of these is "Cybernetics" by Weiner and the other is "The mathematical theory of communication" by Shannon. Both require some study by contain many sections that are easily readable by anyone which get the main points across in an understandable manner.

Weiner's book discuses the use of feedback on virtually every type of control mechanism known... i.e., those of nature as well as those of man. It is the "basic" stuff that everyone of us uses everyday and every moment of our lives whether we are aware of it or not. Whereas Shannon's book tells us how to communicate information in an error-free (or nearly so) way, Weiner's book explains how that information is used to provide effective control of everything around us. For many decades since I first was introduced to these two works, I have used their principles in most things I do.

I very highly recommend these two books to anyone who considers themselves a "thinking person" and is seeking to understand the world around them. Both easily get 5 stars. They are major works!

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A Tale Of What Could Have Been

Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries.

superbly researched and quite interesting

I was there as Prof. Weiner's Student

A Forgotten Inventor & His Contributions.

Dark Hero Of The Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener The Father of Cybernetics
Flo Conway , and Jim Siegelman
Manufacturer: Basic Books
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0738203688
Release Date: 2004-12-14

Book Description

In the middle of the last century, Norbert Wiener-ex-child prodigy and brilliant MIT mathematician -founded the science of cybernetics, igniting the information-age explosion of computers, automation, and global telecommunications. Wiener was the first to articulate the modern notion of "feedback," and his ideas informed the work of computer pioneer John von Neumann, information theorist Claude Shannon, and anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. His best-selling book, Cybernetics, catapulted him into the public spotlight, as did his chilling visions of the future and his ardent social activism. So what happened? Why is his work virtually unknown today? And what, in fact, is Wiener's legacy? In this remarkable book, award-winning journalists Conway and Siegelman set out to rescue Wiener's genius from obscurity and to explore the many ways in which his groundbreaking ideas continue to shape our lives. Based on a wealth of primary sources (including some newly declassified WW II and Cold War-era documents) and exclusive interviews with Wiener's family and closest colleagues, the book reveals an extraordinarily complex figure, whose high-pressure childhood, manic depression, and troubled relationships had a profound effect on his scientific work. No one interested in the intersection of technology and culture will want to miss this epic story of one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and colorful figures.

Customer Reviews:

A Tale Of What Could Have Been.......2007-06-02

My own introduction to Wiener was through the extraordinary insight and published works of Stafford Beer (acknowledged by Wiener as the inventor of management cybernetics). Beers insights into Industrial Engineering, Operations Research and Management Cybernetics have had a huge influence on my career as a manager and international consultant. I am of the opinion that Cybernetics provides a Philosophical Framework that helps to explain why the widely practiced and innovative business-improvement approaches of Lean Management and Six Sigma have been so successful.
A couple of years ago I was troubled by the following review from the prolific, oftentimes, acerbic polymath Cosmo Rohilla Shalizi - A Professor Of Statistics at Canegie Mellon University - . "A science which seems to have dissolved into the others. A lot of good science was done under this banner; it just doesn't seem to hold together ......As a study of abstract machines in general, it becomes identical with dynamics, or computation theory, or some amalgam of both; algebra, even. As a more limited science of "communication and control" it suffers from the fact that communication and control in animals is, when you get down to blood and guts, rather different from communication and control in machines, and neither resembles the mechanisms of C&C in society..... It may be that we haven't exhausted the potential of a science of communication and control, but I think at this point the burden of proof would be on the optimists. Dissolved? Not entirely. There's an old joke that if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate, and not everything associated with cybernetics has gone into solution. Caked on the bottom of the reaction vessel we find: A prefix which seems indispensible to marketroids; the occasion for a great deal of vaporizing in the social sciences and humanities; and a peculiarly navel-gazing sub-sect of systems theory, which isn't exactly God's gift to the advancement of learning in the first place."
Clearly Cosmo is no ones fool......am I really part of a peculiar naval gazing sect? As far as Management Cybernetics is concerned he is clearly wrong - he needs to read Beers work on Organisational Design. Like Wiener it is only now that a lot of people are waking up to the power of his ideas and many consulting organisations have incorporated his methods into their approach. As for science - he is, sadly probably correct. But given the power of the ideas and untapped potential of cybernetics back in the 40's and the clear need for systemic solutions to complex problems, how did the cybernetics agenda become hijacked by reductionist thinkers and regress to become the preserve of naval gazers disconnected from mainstream intellectual thought?
Conway and Siegleman's masterful and scholarly account of the life and times of Wiener clearly explains how Cybernetics lost its way. This is a wonderful story about life really: Humanity, Struggle, Obsessive Parenting, Sex, Science, War Manipulation, Dishonesty, Pride, Jealousy, Sadness and Triumph.
After reading this you may see the sad drunk in the corner and for a moment think a very unlikely possibility - he just might be one of the greatest mathematical minds of the century!
Hopefully their tale will leave you, as it did with me, with a profound sense of what might have been had cybernetics progressed in line with the Philosophy and Vision Of The Knights Of Circular Causality - especially when you reflect on the escalating Mental Health Issues In Society - allegedly 1 in 5 people in the UK have been prescribed ant-depressants, Global Poverty, Climate Change and Iraq.
My only disappointment with the book was the 2 lines given to Ross Ashby and Stafford Beer.
Maybe the authors could write a book on the life and times of Stafford Beer - the man hired as a consultant by 20 governments and of who it has been said - "the man who could have run the world..."

Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries........2006-11-06

Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Nortbert Wiener the Father of Cybernetics tells of an ex-child prodigy and MIT mathematician who founded cybernetics - and then spent the rest of his life warning the world of the consequences of the new technologies he helped foster. Surprisingly, his works and his warnings are relatively unknown today - despite the fact many of his concerns and predictions came true. Dark Hero of the Information Age recounts his life and discoveries - and the consequences of his discoveries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

superbly researched and quite interesting.......2006-08-10

Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman have put an immense effort into writing an exhaustive review of Norbert Wiener, one of the great geniuses of the last century. Wiener spoke an ungodly number of languages, got his PhD from Harvard at the age of 19, made immense contributions to mathematics, biology, computer sciences, medicine, political thought - even in McCarthy's heyday he had no qualms about speaking his mind -, etc, etc.

As generally is the case with biographies of Wunderkinder, the authors ultimately are not equal to their subjects, not for lack of effort, but for lack of having the intellect necessary to understand and do justice to an über-prodigy. And so it is with this book; rather than to analyze and judge Wiener's various accomplishments and beliefs, which range from phenomenal scientific accomplishments to believing that he had been reincarnated, the authors prefer to "tell it as it was" and let the reader draw his or her conclusions.

Despite these inevitable limitations, this book is well worth reading, albeit thoughtfully.

I was there as Prof. Weiner's Student.......2005-10-11

When I first saw the title "Dark Hero of ...." I had to chuckle with the image it engendered of Norbert, dressed in a floppy Batman constume, goutee, thick glassed over his mask which of course hid his identy waddling down the corridors of Building 2, fighting crime in Tauberian Theorems.

The authors wrote a magnificent opus on a great man who, in today's environment, would have been classified as a victim of child abuse. Their facts and presentation carried me back to that era. But, I am uncomfortable with the intensionality that the term 'Dark' might leave in the reader so grant me the right to give an added facet.

As a senior at MIT during the 1959-1960 semesters I had the honor working with Weiner. Up front, my review arises from an unabashed gratitude and affection for a man whose influence and help were instrumental for all the good things that later transpired in my life over the last 45 years.

One day in the fall of 1959 I was walking near Weiner's office after having come out of Dirk Struik's office from a discussion of an item in the Advanced Tensor Analysis course I was taking from him. Just as I was passing by his office the classical Norbert Weiner yelled out " young man, can you come in and finish the calculations on the board". Honestly, I was totally naive and did not know anything about him except having seen him in the corridors.

"Sure" I said. As I entered the office he walked out. There on the dusty chalk board were a facsimile of a spread sheet, with rows of numbers scribbled across the board. I could not admit that I had no idea what the numbers represented, let alone what I was to do. Ego is a wonderful goad for creative problem solving. Seeing a number that looked like the sine of 30 degrees I quickly deciphered that the alternating lines were discrete values of the sine function, the parallel lines were filled with some varying numbers from a seemingly smooth function, and the next line looked like some multiplication/ addition of both. Norman Levinson's course in Complex Anaylsis came to the rescue. Weiner was performing a discrete fast Fourier Transform. Ten minutes later Weiner came in and saw that I had almost completed the spread sheet.

Looking over his glasses he asked "What are you doing here?". "Helping you, Professor" I responded, startled. "Can you come back tomorrow for some more work?" "Sure"

It turned out that he was perfroming a spectral analysis on a section of EEG readings Dr. John Barlow had given Weiner.
I eventually had to hand read the red graph and number the amplitudes. The picture appears in CYBERNTETICS 2nd edition.

One Saturday he directed me to "sit down and write". After a few lines I had the timerity to inquire what the heck was I doing.
His answer: "I'm dictating the upgrade to my book CYBRENETICS". My mistake was to inform him that I could touch type. Zap! Three hours later I threw in the towel. From then on, after math classes I would be sitting typing and learning more ideas and mathematical insight than any of the past 3.5 years. Note, no word processor, no electric type writer. The old fashioned finger toughening for Karate thrust kind.

My many mistaken sheets were then handed over to Weiner's secretary who produced a finished draft.

When the galleys came out I, among many others, reviewed and corrected them.

Weiner informed me that he considered "his students as colleagues" and he gave me the honor and respect that it entailed.
I noticed over the years that the truly great and self assured, including Doc Edgerton in Electric Engineering, treated with respect f those 'under' them. The not so great and their undeserved pomposity are legion in all walks of life.

A few vignettes of his Puckish sense of humor which were seen quite often are in order.

One Saturday, Weiner, who had to check his urine for sugar, came into the office to check it. "Good, all is well", he smiled, "Here, take it and dispose of it".

My response was as brash as anything I had ever done "Prof. Weiner, I have the deepest respect for you. I have had my rump fall asleep while tying your manuscript for hours. But, you take your G.. D....d sample yourelf"

Weiner burst out in laughter "Well, I tried." and waddled off. I just keeled over with laughter.

Weiner was subject to many folks who came to 'worship at his feet' and try to have him help on hair brained schemes.
Once such soul came in one day and proceded to blather. Norbert rose, took him by the elbow with a "I know someone who will really be able to help you", and dumped into Struick's office. From across the hall we heard Struik's Dutch yelling, while chasing the man out. Then, flushed faced, Dirk leaned into the office and hissed "Norbert, stop dumping your garbage into my office!" , and popped out. Norbert broke into a loud chuckle, looke at me, and just smiled.

A few years later Mrs. Weiner called and told me that Norbert was in Mass.General as he had fallen down and done serious damge to himself. I overcame my deep antipathy to hospitals and took my self over.
She informed me that the Professor was in a bad way and Prof. Lee had just left, totally depressed at seeing his mentors state. She told me not to stay too long but to see if I could get him to respond.
Entering his room, I heard Norbert moaning, leaning away from the door. How the wonderful inspiration came to me I have never figured out.

As I walked to his bed , in my most stentorian voice, I said "What 14 carat plated phoney!" He moaned, tried to turn, and went back to moaning.
"There is nothing wrong with you. I know you well enough to know that you faking it, just to avoid being drafted".

Much as he tried not to, he let out a loud laugh. I continued "I bet you are pestering all the doctors like Barlow, that Fourier Anaylysis and Tauberian Theorems can solve all medical problems. They have to listen to you!"

At that he slowly sat up, reached for his glasses and then went into a long story of how indeed he had such ideas, etc.

Mrs. Weiner was clearly taken aback at my brashness and when Norbert sat up she did not know what to do. While happily pontificating Norbert said "Margaret, light up a cigar for me". She lit up one his 'stinkies', handed it to him, and Norber was on his way. Soon after Frau Professor chased me out but I was elated beyond words.

That was the last time I ever saw Weiner but this wonderful book captured so many facets of this rare, great human,

My gratitude. I was there

John C. Kotelly MIT '60

A Forgotten Inventor & His Contributions........2005-07-13

This biography is about the author of the 1948 CYBERNETICS. He was called "the father of the information age" and yet these authors call him the "dark hero who has fallen through the cracks." Norbert Wiener, born in 1895, was a child prodigy who entered college in 1906 and earned his PhD from Harvard seven years later (it took my smart son ten years to get his from University of Chicago!) In 1919 he became a teacher at MIT in Cambridge, Massachuettes but, after two years he left for Cambridge, England, on a graduate fellowship.

At Trinity College, he studied under Bertrand Russell. Because of his heredity and structured upbringing by strict parents, he became manic-depressive and led a life full of eccentricity and social activism. That caused the FBI to investigate him during the Cold War.

He invented "feedback" -- human communication in a technical world. He was a visionary in electronic and biological technologies. In the Twenties, he worked on a new design for the first modern computer. He died in 1964 at the age of 69.

His grandson, Michael Weiner is carrying on his "doomsaying" on Talk Radio using an assumed name. Just as the Rosenberg boys had to grow up using false last names. I don't use my maiden name any longer; sometimes, it is best to just be a separate entity from your ancestors and stand on your own two feet. But not to the extent of forsaking the laurels of a forgotten grandfather whose genius turned out to be mental illness.

The writer-duo have previously written SNAPPING (America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change) and HOLY TERROR.

God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion

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A worthwhile venture
Good retrospective of the history of computing
Technological Ethics

God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Mathematical Theory of Communication

ASIN: 0262730111

Book Description

The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it--cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.

The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers.

A second point concerns machines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that God made man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function in which one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has made machines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image," and these machine images are not merely pictorial representations but operative images. Can we then say: God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.

The third point considered is that of the relation between man and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's and unto the computer the things which are the computer's," warns the author. In this section of the book, Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man and machine.

The book is written for the intellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based on lectures given at Yale, at the Société Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.

Customer Reviews:

A worthwhile venture.......2005-02-15

Weiner was something of a revolutionary in his time. He (among others) pushed the revolution in computing out of the slipstick era. He, at the height of the Cold War, wrote for audiences in both the USSR and the USA. Small wonder that he took on religion. I mean that he took it on as a duty and companion, not as an opponent, though many might have seen opposition.

Much of this book lacks direction. He skims issues that are still contentious, including the right to die. His arguments about self-reproducing machines tend twaords the vague, although he admits that he avoided tedious precision. Many of his points are clear and sharp, however. Drawing on the genie in the bottle, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, and other popular literature, he argues that the capabilities of technology steadily run ahead of our ability to predict and mitigate its consequences. He also notes, during first light of the transistor age, that "Living matter has a fine structure ... [approached by] machines which operate according to the principles of solid-state physics." As usual, technological optimism carried him well beyond justifiable extrapolation. Also as usual, he had a fair inkling of how today's 0.1 micron transistors might compare to 1.0 micron brain cells.

His sharpest commentary starts in the faith that scientists and engineers are moral people, and work in the belief of the human good that comes from their life's work. (Please, don't descend to the belief that we think we are evil people reveling in evil outcomes.) Weiner notes that the deepest hell in Dante's Inferno is reserved for the sin of simony - directing the Church's good power to personal gain, using the force of money. He draws a direct analogy to the sin of corrupting vast technological power towards personal gain, also using money as controlling force. If you're already queasy about the amorality of the MBA's "bottom line" ethos, this may give you some very bad dreams.

It's an important book. It's flawed, but has the honesty to ask hard questions. It also has the courage to attach a moral sense to the analytic trait of mind - it ought not be surprising that the two fit closely.

Among all the quotable lines in this book, one stands out: "... remember that in the game of atomic warfare, there are no experts." Here, now, under the president that demolished 30 years of arms control treaties, it's a phrase to remember.

//wiredweird

Good retrospective of the history of computing.......2002-08-16

Written in 1964 when the concept of a human interacting dynamically with a machine was first becoming a reality, there are facets of this book that are dated. Nevertheless, the concepts that are described are still as pertinent today as they were when Wiener first set down his thoughts. The book is a collection of essays where Wiener explains his ideas for what he thinks the future holds for humans interacting with machines.
The approach is very non-technical so it is possible for the lay person to understand his thoughts. The prose is also well structured, making it very easy to read through. Reading this book is a good way to go back in time and get some idea of what the early experts thought would be the direction and consequences of the development of the new "thinking machines". It is also an excellent choice for gaining a retrospective in any history of computing course.

Technological Ethics.......1998-05-19

A brief series of personal essays by famous mathematician Norbert Wiener on the ethics of modern technology and questions whether humans should follow all leads of technology regardless of the consequences. An easy-to-read, informative book. No technical background is needed to understand the arguments.

Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series

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Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262730057

Book Description

It has been the opinion of many that Wiener will be remembered for his Extrapolation long after Cybernetics is forgotten. Indeed few computer-science students would know today what cybernetics is all about, while every communication student knows what Wiener's filter is. The work was circulated as a classified memorandum in 1942, as it was connected with sensitive war-time efforts to improve radar communication. This book became the basis for modern communication theory, by a scientist considered one of the founders of the field of artifical intelligence. Combining ideas from statistics and time-series analysis, Wiener used Gauss's method of shaping the characteristic of a detector to allow for the maximal recognition of signals in the presence of noise. This method came to be known as the "Wiener filter."

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Well written biography

I Am a Mathematician
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth
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The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Da Capo Paperback)

ASIN: 0262730073

Customer Reviews:

Well written biography.......2000-08-11

Well written biography - what can I say else? It was very interesting to read the book.

Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society

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The thermostat of society
This book captures the essential aspects of communications.

Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
Norbert Weiner , and Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0380012731

Customer Reviews:

The thermostat of society.......2005-03-02

We know the ideal room temperature that we want. There are however all kinds of factors continually changing the room- temperature. We have a means of measuring the temperature continually and making readjustments to keep it steady. The feedback, the report on what is 'happening now in the system' enables us to alter the system to produce the ideal result that we want. This feedback enables us to pilot the system as we want it , and keep it under our control.
So much for the thermostat, feedback, and I believe the basic idea of Norbert Weiner's communications- control world.
But what happens when the ideal result is not agreed upon at the outset? And what happens when the ' measuring' of the system is not a non- ambiguous straightforward matter?
Is it possible that human affairs are so complicated, so informed by what Isaiah Berlin might call 'competing and conflicting ideal ends and values', that a model for their development based on a simple physical analogy is not appropriate? and this even though that model is presented by a very great genius?

This book captures the essential aspects of communications........1999-01-16

The purpose of communication is to control our enviornment. In order to communicate effectively, however, it is essential that we consider the feedback we are getting. Alteration of sending messages is the most important aspect of effective communication. That requires that we consider the audience we are talking to and change our message relative to the feedback and the audience. Weiner presents the philosophic arguments for communication. These concepts remain unchanged since the publication of this book in 1954. This is the finest book on theory of communication I have read. Everyone concerned with improving communication should read this thought provoking book.

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Ex-prodigy. My Childhood andYouth
A mathematical John Stuart Mill

Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262730081

Customer Reviews:

Ex-prodigy. My Childhood andYouth.......2005-08-31

It's an excellent book telling about how it's to grow up as a prodigy and thereby living a life betwwen older in the schools and at the same age when out playing. And besides allso becaurse the books is about living 100 years ago telling about how it was then, and the meating with many famous science person living then. Allso telling about other prodigys problems.

A mathematical John Stuart Mill .......2005-07-04

This is the story of the childhood and youth of a genius. Norbert Wiener who would go on to become an important mathematician and one of the principal developers of communication theory, and his own specific discipline 'cybernetics' tells here the story of his most unusual childhood and youth. At the center is his relation to his father Leo Wiener who was a Professor of Slavic Languages, and an extraordinarily ambitious person. He pushed his son from an early age in much the same way that John Mill pushed John Stuart Mill. In the process he was often cruel. "He would begin the discussion in an easy, conversational tone. This lasted exactly until I made the first mathematical mistake. Then the gentle and loving father was replaced by the avenger of the blood.... Father was raging, I was weeping, and my mother did her best to defend me, although hers was a losing battle." The father pushed Wiener so well that he enrolled in Tufts University at the age of eleven finished four years later with a degree in Mathmematics. The father was also a publicity - hound who publicized his son the genius, and claimed it had nothing to do with any genetic quality or special gift of his son, but rather was solely attributable to his own educational methods. The father too saw too it that the son had a family life, and selected one of his students to be his son's wife, and practical daily life manager.
Wiener despite all this went on to become a distinguished MIT professor of Mathematics, an original genius and a highly respected teacher.
This autobiography is one of two and there is another work by Wiener covering his later years.
However anyone who wishes to know the life- in full should also look at the biographical literature, that contains much about the life of genius he himself did not apparently wish to tell.

Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series with Engineering Applications Application: With Engineering Applications

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Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series with Engineering Applications Application: With Engineering Applications
Norbert Wiener
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 026223002X

Book Description

After World War II, communication and control engineering reached a high level of development. The next step may be the recasting and unifying of the theories of control and communication in the machine and in the animal on a statistical basis. This monograph represents one phase of the new theory pertaining to the methods and techniques in the design of communications; it was first published during the war as a classified report to the National Defense Research Committee. It is an attempt to unite the theory and practice of two fields of work that are of vital importance and have a complete natural methodological unity, although they draw their inspiration from two entirely distinct traditions and are widely different in their vocabulary and the training of their personnel--time series in statistics and communication engineering.

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