Norbert Wiener 1894–1964

Norbert Wiener 1894–1964 PDF Author: Pesi R. Masani
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034892527
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems. Wiener is considered the originator of cybernetics, a formalization of the notion of feedback, with implications for engineering, systems control, computer science, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the organization of society. Wiener thought on a grand scale and stressed the adaptation of technical concepts from pure mathematics and electrical engineering outside their technical contexts. Masani's interesting and thoughtful book analyses both Wiener's mathematical and his nonmathematical ideas in sympathetic and sensitive detail. Readers will find much to appreciate in this book, in addition to the discussion of Wiener's technical research.

Norbert Wiener 1894–1964

Norbert Wiener 1894–1964 PDF Author: Pesi R. Masani
Publisher: Birkhäuser
ISBN: 3034892527
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems. Wiener is considered the originator of cybernetics, a formalization of the notion of feedback, with implications for engineering, systems control, computer science, biology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the organization of society. Wiener thought on a grand scale and stressed the adaptation of technical concepts from pure mathematics and electrical engineering outside their technical contexts. Masani's interesting and thoughtful book analyses both Wiener's mathematical and his nonmathematical ideas in sympathetic and sensitive detail. Readers will find much to appreciate in this book, in addition to the discussion of Wiener's technical research.

God & Golem, Inc.

God & Golem, Inc. PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262730112
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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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.

Harmonies of Disorder

Harmonies of Disorder PDF Author: Leone Montagnini
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319506579
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This book presents the entire body of thought of Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), knowledge of which is essential if one wishes to understand and correctly interpret the age in which we live. The focus is in particular on the philosophical and sociological aspects of Wiener’s thought, but these aspects are carefully framed within the context of his scientific journey. Important biographical events, including some that were previously unknown, are also highlighted, but while the book has a biographical structure, it is not only a biography. The book is divided into four chronological sections, the first two of which explore Wiener’s development as a philosopher and logician and his brilliant interwar career as a mathematician, supported by his philosophical background. The third section considers his research during World War II, which drew upon his previous scientific work and reflections and led to the birth of cybernetics. Finally, the radical post-war shift in Wiener’s intellectual path is considered, examining how he came to abandon computer science projects and commenced ceaseless public reflections on the new sciences and technologies of information, their social effects, and the need for responsibility in science.

Dark Hero of the Information Age

Dark Hero of the Information Age PDF Author: Flo Conway
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786735619
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
Child prodigy and brilliant MIT mathematician, Norbert Wiener founded the revolutionary science of cybernetics and ignited the information-age explosion of computers, automation, and global telecommunications. His best-selling book, Cybernetics, catapulted him into the public spotlight, as did his chilling visions of the future and his ardent social activism. Based on a wealth of primary sources and exclusive access to Wiener's closest family members, friends, and colleagues, Dark Hero of the Information Age reveals this eccentric genius as an extraordinarily complex figure. 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.

Invention

Invention PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262731119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
An insider's view of the history of discovery and invention.

John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener

John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener PDF Author: Steve J. Heims
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 594

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Book Description
. John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener were mathematician-scientists, both child prodigies born near the turn of the century. As young men each made profound contributions to abstract mathematics.

Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Reissue of the 1961 second edition

Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Reissue of the 1961 second edition PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262537842
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
A classic and influential work that laid the theoretical foundations for information theory and a timely text for contemporary informations theorists and practitioners. With the influential book Cybernetics, first published in 1948, Norbert Wiener laid the theoretical foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics, the study of controlling the flow of information in systems with feedback loops, be they biological, mechanical, cognitive, or social. At the core of Wiener's theory is the message (information), sent and responded to (feedback); the functionality of a machine, organism, or society depends on the quality of messages. Information corrupted by noise prevents homeostasis, or equilibrium. And yet Cybernetics is as philosophical as it is technical, with the first chapter devoted to Newtonian and Bergsonian time and the philosophical mixed with the technical throughout. This book brings the 1961 second edition back into print, with new forewords by Doug Hill and Sanjoy Mitter. Contemporary readers of Cybernetics will marvel at Wiener's prescience—his warnings against “noise,” his disdain for “hucksters” and “gadget worshipers,” and his view of the mass media as the single greatest anti-homeostatic force in society. This edition of Cybernetics gives a new generation access to a classic text.

Norbert Wiener-A Life in Cybernetics

Norbert Wiener-A Life in Cybernetics PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262535440
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 527

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Book Description
Norbert Wiener's celebrated autobiography, available for the first time in one volume. Norbert Wiener—A Life in Cybernetics combines for the first time the two volumes of Norbert Wiener's celebrated autobiography. Published at the height of public enthusiasm for cybernetics—when it was taken up by scientists, engineers, science fiction writers, artists, and musicians—Ex-Prodigy (1953) and I Am a Mathematician (1956) received attention from both scholarly and mainstream publications, garnering reviews and publicity in outlets that ranged from the New York Times and New York Post to the Virginia Quarterly Review. Norbert Wiener was a mathematician with extraordinarily broad interests. The son of a Harvard professor of Slavic languages, Wiener was reading Dante and Darwin at seven, graduated from Tufts at fourteen, and received a PhD from Harvard at eighteen. He joined MIT's Department of Mathematics in 1919, where he remained until his death in 1964 at sixty-nine. In Ex-Prodigy, Wiener offers an emotionally raw account of being raised as a child prodigy by an overbearing father. In I Am a Mathematician, Wiener describes his research at MIT and how he established the foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics and the theory of feedback systems. This volume makes available the essence of Wiener's life and thought to a new generation of readers.

The Human Use Of Human Beings

The Human Use Of Human Beings PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0786752262
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cybernetics—the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system—Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact—in effect, a third industrial revolution—that the computer has had on our lives.

Ex-Prodigy

Ex-Prodigy PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: Mit Press
ISBN: 9780262730082
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description