Norbert Wiener

Wiener Norbert (1894-1964), American scientist. In the work "Cybernetics" he formulated the main provisions cybernetics. Proceedings on mathematical analysis, probability theory, electrical networks and computer technology.

Wiener Norbert (1894-1964) - American mathematician, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). Wiener's early work was mainly devoted to the foundations of mathematics. Wiener was also involved in theoretical physics and obtained a number of significant results in the field of mathematical analysis and probability theory. The study of the functioning of electronic tracking and computing devices, along with research (together with the Mexican physiologist Dr. A. Rosenbluth) on the physiology of nervous activity, led Wiener to formulate the ideas and principles of cybernetics (“Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in Animal and Machine”, 1948). Wiener's philosophical views are eclectic; Wiener himself considered himself an existentialist with his pessimistic views on society. Wiener called to fight against the war, advocated international cooperation of scientists.

Philosophical Dictionary. Ed. I.T. Frolova. M., 1991, p. 66-67.

Wiener Norbert (November 20, 1894, Columbia, Missouri - March 18, 1964, Stockholm) was an American mathematician, one of the founders of cybernetics. studied with J. Santayana , J. Royce , B. Russell , E. Husserl , D. Gilbert. Wiener's first studies were devoted to logic, in particular, to a comparative analysis of the theory of relations by E. Schroeder and B. Russell. Wiener's mathematical creativity was largely determined by the formulation of problems in theoretical physics (Brownian motion, statistical mechanics) and biological sciences (modeling of neurodynamic processes), as well as problems of electrical and computer technology. Wiener's results in the theory of Fourier transforms, potential theory, theory of Tauberian theorems, probability theory, communication theory, generalized harmonic analysis, theory of prediction and filtering testify to the desire for interdisciplinary synthesis and linking theoretical constructions with practice. This installation of Wiener found expression in the book "Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" (1948: Russian translation 19682), in which the status of a new complex scientific research was substantiated. directions and its name is entered. Developing the statistical theory of information, Wiener deepened the interpretation of the principle of negative feedback and showed the analogies that exist between computers, machines and the human brain. Wiener's idea of ​​cybernetics is based on the position of the unity of the processes of control and processing of information in complex systems.

Proceeding from the fact that “new concepts of communication and control entail a new understanding of man and human knowledge about the universe and society” (“I am a mathematician”, M., 1964, p. 312), he developed a cybernetic approach to various fields of science and culture. Wiener defended ideas of a materialistic and dialectical nature. He attached great importance to the analysis of the relationship between necessity and chance (the concept of the "probabilistic universe"), analyzed the relationship between information and thermodynamic patterns, studied control processes and information processes in the context of purposeful behavior, and emphasized the role of models in cognition. In recent works, Wiener turned to the problems of learning and self-reproducing machines, the issues of human interaction with information and computing devices. Wiener pointed out the need to study the social aspects of scientific. knowledge, responsibility of scientists in the modern world.

Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editors: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983.

Compositions: Selected papers, Camb. (Mass.), 1964; in Russian lane - Cybernetics and society, M., 1958; Science and Society, "VF", 1961, No. 7.

Literature: Povarov G. H., H. Wiener and his "Cybernetics", in the book: Wiener N., Cybernetics ..., M., 19682; Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 1966, v. 72, No. 1, pt 2 (lit.).

Norbert Wiener was born on November 26, 1894 in Columbia, Missouri, to a Jewish family. At the age of nine, he entered a secondary school, where children of 15-16 years old began to study, having previously completed an eight-year school. He graduated from high school when he was eleven. Immediately entered the higher educational institution Tufts College. After graduating, at the age of fourteen, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. Then he studied at Harvard and Cornell Universities, at the age of 17 he became a master of arts at Harvard, at 18 - a doctor of philosophy with a degree in mathematical logic.

Harvard University awarded Wiener a scholarship to study at Cambridge (England) and Göttingen (Germany) universities.

In the 1915/1916 academic year, Wiener taught mathematics at Harvard University as an assistant.

Viner spent the next academic year as an employee at the University of Maine. After the US entered the war, Wiener worked at the General Electric plant, from where he moved to the editorial office of the American Encyclopedia in Albany. In 1919, he joined the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 1920-1925, he solved physical and technical problems with the help of abstract mathematics and found new patterns in the theory of Brownian motion, potential theory, and harmonic analysis.

At the same time, Wiener met one of the designers of computers - W. Bush, and expressed the idea that once came to his mind of a new harmonic analyzer. In 1926, D.Ya. came to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stroykh. Wiener, together with him, took up the application of the ideas of differential geometry to differential equations, including the Schrödinger equation.

In 1929, the Swedish journal Akta Mathematica and the American Annals of Mathematics published two large final articles by Wiener on generalized harmonic analysis. Since 1932, Wiener has been a professor at MIT.

The computers that existed at that time did not have the necessary speed. This forced Wiener to formulate a number of requirements for such machines. The machine, Wiener believed, must itself correct its actions, it is necessary to develop the ability for self-learning in it. To do this, it must be provided with a memory block where control signals would be stored, as well as the information that the machine will receive during operation.

In 1943, an article by Wiener, Rosenbluth, Byglow "Behavior, purposefulness and teleology" was published, which is an outline of the cybernetic method.

In Wiener's head, the idea had long been ripening to write a book and tell in it about the generality of the laws in force in the field of automatic regulation, the organization of production, and in the human nervous system. He managed to persuade the Parisian publisher Feyman to publish this future book.

Immediately there was a difficulty with the title, the content was too unusual. It was required to find a word related to management, regulation. The Greek word for "helmsman" came to mind, which in English sounds like "cybernetics". So Wiener left him.

The book was published in 1948 by John Wheely and Suns in New York and Hermann et Tsi in Paris. Speaking about control and communication in living organisms and machines, he saw the main thing not just in the words "control" and "communication", but in their combination. Cybernetics is the science of information management, and Wiener can rightfully be considered the creator of this science.

All the years after the release of Cybernetics, Wiener propagated its ideas. In 1950, a sequel was published - "Human Use of Human Beings", in 1958 - "Nonlinear Problems in the Theory of Stochastic Processes", in 1961 - the second edition of "Cybernetics", in 1963 - a kind of cybernetic essay "Joint-Stock Company God and Golem" .

Reprinted from http://100top.ru/encyclopedia/

One of the founders of cybernetics

Wiener Norbert (November 26, 1894, Columbia, Missouri - March 18, 1964, Stockholm) was an American mathematician, one of the founders of cybernetics. After graduating from Harvard University, at the age of eighteen he became a doctor of philosophy with a degree in mathematical logic; prepared himself for a philosophical career, but later gave preference to mathematics. Among his teachers are J. Santayana, J. Royce, B. Russell, E. Husserl, D. Gilbert.

Wiener's early work was devoted to logic, statistical mechanics, modeling of neurodynamic processes, as well as to the problems of electrical engineering, radar and computer technology.

In 1948, Wiener's main work, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, was published. There are two theses in this work. The first is the similarity of control and communication processes in machines, living organisms and biological communities. These processes are primarily the processes of transmission, storage and processing of information. The second thesis: the amount of information is identified by Wiener with negative entropy and becomes, like the amount of matter or energy, one of the fundamental characteristics of nature. Hence the interpretation of cybernetics as a theory of organization, as a theory of struggle against world chaos, with a fatal increase in entropy. The human mind is one of the links in this struggle. “We are swimming upstream,” he wrote, “struggling with a huge stream of disorganization, which, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, tends to reduce everything to thermal death - universal balance and sameness. What Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs called heat death in their physical writings found its counterpart in the ethics of Kierkegaard, who claimed that we live in a world of chaotic morality. In this world, our first duty is to arrange arbitrary islands of order and system ”(Wiener N. Ya - mathematician, p. 311).

However, the space perspectives of this struggle, according to the founder of cybernetics, are inevitably tragic. “The best we can hope for, speaking of the role of progress in a universe as a whole going to its death, is that the spectacle of our striving for progress in the face of necessity oppressing us can have a sense of the purifying horror of a Greek tragedy.” (Wiener N. Cybernetics and society, p. 53).

In recent works, Wiener developed a cybernetic approach to various fields of science and technology, studied the problems of learning and self-reproducing machines and their interaction with humans. The humanistic views of the scientist were reflected both in his philosophical reflections on the inconsistency of using cybernetic technology (for good or for evil for a person) and on the social responsibility of the scientist, and in his social and educational activities.

Yu. Yu. Petrunin

New Philosophical Encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Huseynov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Thought, 2010, vol. I, A - D, p. 402-403.

Read further:

Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).

Compositions:

Selected papers. Cambr. (Mass.), 1964;

I am a mathematician. M., 1964;

Cybernetics and society. M., 1958;

Creator and robot. Discussing some of the problems in which cybernetics collides with religion. M., 1966;

Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine. M., 1983.

Literature:

Povarov G.N. Norbert Wiener and his "Cybernetics". - In the book: Wiener N. Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine. M., 1968;

Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 1966, v. 72, No. I, pt 2 (lit.).

Norbert Wiener was born on November 26, 1894 in Columbia, Missouri, to a Jewish family. At the age of nine, he entered a secondary school, where children of 15-16 years old began to study, having previously completed an eight-year school. He graduated from high school when he was eleven. Immediately entered the higher educational institution Tufts College. After graduating, at the age of fourteen, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. Then he studied at Harvard and Cornell Universities, at the age of 17 he became a master of arts at Harvard, at 18 - a doctor of philosophy with a degree in mathematical logic.

Harvard University awarded Wiener a scholarship to study at Cambridge (England) and Göttingen (Germany) universities.

In the 1915/1916 academic year, Wiener taught mathematics at Harvard University as an assistant.

Viner spent the next academic year as an employee at the University of Maine. After the US entered the war, Wiener worked at the General Electric plant, from where he moved to the editorial office of the American Encyclopedia in Albany. In 1919, he joined the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In 1920-1925, he solved physical and technical problems with the help of abstract mathematics and found new patterns in the theory of Brownian motion, potential theory, and harmonic analysis.

At the same time, Wiener met one of the designers of computers - W. Bush, and expressed the idea that once came to his mind of a new harmonic analyzer. In 1926, D.Ya. came to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stroykh. Wiener, together with him, took up the application of the ideas of differential geometry to differential equations, including the Schrödinger equation.

In 1929, the Swedish journal Akta Mathematica and the American Annals of Mathematics published two large final articles by Wiener on generalized harmonic analysis. Since 1932, Wiener has been a professor at MIT.

The computers that existed at that time did not have the necessary speed. This forced Wiener to formulate a number of requirements for such machines. The machine, Wiener believed, must itself correct its actions, it is necessary to develop the ability for self-learning in it. To do this, it must be provided with a memory block where control signals would be stored, as well as the information that the machine will receive during operation.

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In 1943, an article by Wiener, Rosenbluth, Byglow "Behavior, purposefulness and teleology" was published, which is an outline of the cybernetic method.

In Wiener's head, the idea had long been ripening to write a book and tell in it about the generality of the laws in force in the field of automatic regulation, the organization of production, and in the human nervous system. He managed to persuade the Parisian publisher Feyman to publish this future book.

Immediately there was a difficulty with the title, the content was too unusual. It was required to find a word related to management, regulation. The Greek word for "helmsman" came to mind, which in English sounds like "cybernetics". So Wiener left him.

The book was published in 1948 by John Wheely and Suns in New York and Hermann et Tsi in Paris. Speaking about control and communication in living organisms and machines, he saw the main thing not just in the words "control" and "communication", but in their combination. Cybernetics is the science of information management, and Wiener can rightfully be considered the creator of this science.

All the years after the release of Cybernetics, Wiener propagated its ideas. In 1950, a sequel was published - "Human Use of Human Beings", in 1958 - "Nonlinear Problems in the Theory of Stochastic Processes", in 1961 - the second edition of "Cybernetics", in 1963 - a kind of cybernetic essay "Joint-Stock Company God and Golem" .

Introduction

2. Cybernetics of Norbert Wiener

Conclusion

Cybernetics is concerned with the management of open systems, but only those that have feedback. Positive feedback - the behavior of the system enhances external influences (for example, an avalanche). Negative connection is the behavior of the system, in which external influences are weakened. Such a connection stabilizes the processes in the system (refrigerator, thermostat and all modern information devices). Homeostatic connection - when the external influence is reduced by the system to zero (Homeostasis - maintaining a constant body temperature).

One of the meanings of the Greek word kebernetes, from which its science name is derived, is helmsman. The birth of cybernetics is usually associated with the American mathematician Norbert Wiener.

Norbert Wiener in the 50s and 60s defined cybernetics as the science of managing connections in machines and biological systems. The behavior of open systems with feedback is described as organized goal-directed behavior that leads to a decrease in entropy. By the 60s, it became clear that for real systems it is not enough to take into account the effective management of the system, but it is necessary to take into account the self-organization of the system, that is, it was necessary to find a connection between the effective management of the system and the specifics of the development of a real system.

The history of cybernetics spans 19 years, an official history that began with Norbert Wiener, professor of mathematics at MIT, when he published his famous book Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in Animal and Machine in 1948. Of course, this story had its own prehistory, traced by later authors to Plato himself, but cybernetics was discussed everywhere only after the Wiener sensation. Though at first it seemed only a sensation, cybernetics has now turned into a vast and influential branch of world science.

Norbert Wiener has already finished his earthly labors. This was one of the most brilliant and paradoxical minds of the capitalist West, deeply disturbed by the contradictions of the atomic age, intensely thinking about the fate of man in an era of unprecedented power of science and technology. "The Human Use of Human Beings" is the title of his second cybernetic book. He felt the collapse of the old liberal humanism, but, like Einstein and a number of other representatives of Western thought, did not find the way to new values. Hence his pessimism, dressed in the clothes of stoicism; he dreaded the role of Cassandra.

He left behind a large scientific legacy, complex and controversial, in many ways controversial, in many ways interesting and stimulating. This legacy requires a thoughtful, critical, philosophical approach, far from the extremes of denial and exaggeration that have so often been heard. And in this heritage the first place is occupied by "Cybernetics" - a book that proclaimed the birth of a new science.

This is the main book of Wiener, the result of all his scientific activities. Wiener called it "an inventory of his scientific baggage." It is the most important material for the characterization of a scientist and, at the same time, a monument to the early, romantic era of cybernetics, the "period of storm and stress." But it has not lost its scientific significance and may turn out to be useful for an inquisitive researcher even in the new conditions, when cybernetics, having won a place in the sun, is preoccupied with the rational organization of what has been won.

1. Norbert Wiener, life and work

Norbert Wiener was born November 26, 1894 in Columbia, Missouri to a Jewish immigrant family. His father, Leo Wiener (1862-1939), a native of Bialystok, then part of Russia, studied in Germany as a young man and then moved overseas to the United States. There, after various adventures, he eventually became a prominent philologist. In Columbia, he was already a professor of modern languages ​​at the University of Missouri, later he was a professor of Slavonic languages ​​at Harvard University, the oldest in the United States, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. In the same American Cambridge in 1915, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) settled, one of the main higher technical schools in the country, in which his son later worked. Leo Wiener was a follower of Tolstoy and his translator into English. As a scientist, he showed very broad interests and did not back down before risky hypotheses. These qualities were inherited by Norbert Wiener, who, however, was apparently distinguished by greater method and depth.

According to family tradition, the Wieners are descended from the famous Jewish scholar and theologian Moses Maimonides of Cordoba (1135–1204), a physician at the court of Sultan Saladin of Egypt. Norbert Wiener spoke proudly of this legend, but did not vouch for its authenticity. Maimonides' versatility especially admired him.

The future founder of cybernetics was a child prodigy, a child with early awakened abilities. This was largely facilitated by his father, who worked with him according to his own program. Young Norbert read Darwin and Dante at the age of seven, graduated from high school at the age of eleven, and graduated from the higher educational institution, Tufts College, at the age of fourteen. Here he received his first degree - a Bachelor of Arts.

Then he studied at Harvard University already as a graduate student (graduate student) and at the age of seventeen he became a master of arts, and at eighteen, in 1913, a doctor of philosophy with a degree in mathematical logic. The title of Doctor of Philosophy in this case is not only a tribute to tradition, since Wiener first prepared himself for a philosophical career and only later gave preference to mathematics. At Harvard he studied philosophy under J. Santayana and J. Royce (whose name the reader will find in Cybernetics). Wiener's philosophical education was subsequently reflected in the development of the project of a new science and in the books that he wrote about it.

Harvard University provided the young doctor with a scholarship to travel to Europe. In 1913–1915 Wiener attended Cambridge University in England and Göttingen University in Germany, but returned to America due to the war and ended his educational journey at Columbia University in New York. In Cambridge, England, Wiener studied with the famous B. Russell, who at the beginning of the century was the leading authority in the field of mathematical logic, and with J. H. Hardy, a well-known mathematician and specialist in number theory. Subsequently, Wiener wrote: "Russell inspired me with a very reasonable idea that a person who is going to specialize in mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics might know something of mathematics itself." In Göttingen, Wiener studied with the outstanding German mathematician D. Hilbert, listened to the lectures of the philosopher E. Husserl.

In 1915 the service began. Wiener got an assistant position in the philosophy department at Harvard, but only for a year. In search of happiness, he changed a number of places, was a journalist, wanted to join the soldiers. However, he, apparently, was sufficiently provided for and did not feel the need. Finally, with the assistance of the mathematician F.V. Osgood, a friend of his father, Wiener got a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1919, Wiener was appointed instructor (instructor) in the Department of Mathematics at MIT and since then has remained a member of the institute all his life. In 1926 Wiener married Marguerite Engemann, an American of German origin.

Wiener considered the years 1920–1925 to be the years of his formation in mathematics. He reveals a desire to solve complex physical and technical problems using the methods of modern abstract mathematics. He is engaged in the theory of Brownian motion, tries his hand at potential theory, develops a generalized harmonic analysis for the needs of communication theory. His academic career is slow but successful.

In 1932, Wiener became a full professor. He is gaining a name in the scientific circles of America and Europe. Dissertations are written under his supervision. He publishes a number of books and large memoirs on mathematics: “Generalized Harmonic Analysis”, “Tauberian Theorems”, “Fourier Integral and Some of Its Applications”, etc. A joint study with the German mathematician E. Hopf (or Hopf) on the radiative equilibrium of stars introduces science “Wiener–Hopf equation”. Another joint work, the monograph "Fourier Transform in the Complex Domain" was written in collaboration with the English mathematician R. Paley. This book was published under tragic circumstances: even before it was finished, an Englishman died in the Canadian Rockies during a ski trip. Wiener also pays tribute to technical creativity, in company with the Chinese scientist Yu.V. Lee and W. Bush, a well-known designer of analog computers. In 1935–1936 Wiener was vice president of the American Mathematical Society.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Wiener repeatedly visited Europe, made extensive scientific acquaintances, lived for a long time in Cambridge and Göttingen, and participated in international mathematical congresses. Among his acquaintances were M. Fréchet, J. Hadamard, N. Bor, M. Born, J. Haldane, J. Bernal and others. Viner visits China as a "traveling professor" (visiting professor) and lectures at Beijing Tsinghua University. Wiener attached great importance to travel and personal scientific communication in his scientific development.

The year of the trip to China - 1935 - Wiener considered an important milestone in his life, the beginning of scientific maturity. He was forty years old, he achieved recognition and a strong position in science. “My work began to bear fruit - I managed not only to publish a number of significant independent works, but also to develop a certain concept that could no longer be ignored in science.” The development of this concept then led Wiener to the significant project of cybernetics.

Back in the 1930s, Wiener became close friends with the Mexican scientist Arthur Rosenbluth, a collaborator of the famous American physiologist W.B. Cannon, and takes part in a free methodological seminar organized by Rosenbluth and bringing together representatives of different sciences. This seminar played an important role in the preparation of Wiener cybernetics. The real book begins with a story about him. Acquaintance with a Mexican physiologist introduced Wiener into the world of biology and medicine; the idea of ​​a broad synthetic approach to the problems of modern science began to strengthen in his mind.

ARTURO ROSENBLUT,

TO MY FRIEND IN SCIENCE

FOR MANY YEARS.

Norbert Wiener and his "Cybernetics"

(from the translation editor)

The history of the century is being made before our very eyes. We look with amazement at the strange bulks that have grown up on recent wastelands, and then quickly get used to them, settle in them and hurry on, to new hundred-story skyscrapers.

The history of cybernetics spans 19 years, an official history that began with Norbert Wiener, professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, when he published his famous book Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in Animal and Machine in 1948. Of course, this story had its own prehistory, traced by later authors to Plato himself, but cybernetics was discussed everywhere only after the Wiener sensation. Though it seemed at first only a sensation, cybernetics has now turned into a vast and influential branch of world science.

Norbert Wiener has already finished his earthly labors. This was one of the most brilliant and paradoxical minds of the capitalist West, deeply disturbed by the contradictions of the atomic age, intensely thinking about the fate of man in an era of unprecedented power of science and technology. The Human Use of Human Beings is the title of his second cybernetic book. He felt the collapse of the old liberal humanism, but, like Einstein and a number of other representatives of Western thought, he did not find a path to new values. Hence his pessimism, dressed in the clothes of stoicism; he dreaded the role of Cassandra.

He left behind a large scientific legacy, complex and controversial, in many ways controversial, in many ways interesting and stimulating. This legacy requires a thoughtful, critical, philosophical approach, far from the extremes of denial and exaggeration that have so often been heard. And in this heritage the first place is occupied by "Cybernetics" - a book that proclaimed the birth of a new science.

This is the main book of Wiener, the result of all his scientific activities. Wiener called it "an inventory of his scientific baggage." It is the most important material for the characterization of a scientist and, at the same time, a monument to the early, romantic era of cybernetics, the "period of storm and stress." But she did not lose her scientific value and may prove useful for an inquisitive researcher in the new conditions, when cybernetics, having won a place in the sun, is concerned about the rational organization of what has been won.

The first English edition of Cybernetics was published in the USA and France in 1948. The modest red-bound book, replete with misprints and misprints, soon became a scientific bestseller, one of the "books of the century." In 1958, it was translated into Russian by the Soviet Radio publishing house. In 1961, the second edition of Cybernetics was published in the USA with a new author's preface and new chapters, which made up the second part of the book; its former text, reprinted without changes, only with the correction of errors, is made in the first part. In 1963, the publishing house "Soviet Radio" published the book "New Chapters of Cybernetics", containing a translation of the preface and the second part from the second edition. Readers are now offered a complete revised translation of the edition, with some additional articles and conversations by Wiener attached.

Prof. Wiener made the task of his biographers much easier by writing two books of memoirs in his declining years: one of them is devoted to childhood and years of study (“Former Prodigy”); the other - professional career and creativity ("I am a mathematician").

Norbert Wiener was born November 26, 1894 in Columbia, Missouri to a Jewish immigrant family. His father, Leo Wiener (1862-1939), a native of Bialystok, then part of Russia, studied in Germany as a young man and then moved overseas to the United States. There, after various adventures, he eventually became a prominent philologist. In Columbia, he was already a professor of modern languages ​​at the University of Missouri, later he was a professor of Slavonic languages ​​at Harvard University, the oldest in the United States, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. In the same American Cambridge in 1915, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) settled, one of the main higher technical schools in the country, in which later the son also worked. Leo Wiener was a follower of Tolstoy and his translator into English. As a scientist, he showed very broad interests and did not back down before risky hypotheses. These qualities were inherited by Norbert Wiener, who, however, was apparently distinguished by greater method and depth.

According to family tradition, the Wieners are descended from the famous Jewish scholar and theologian Moses Maimonides of Cordoba (1135-1204), a physician at the court of Sultan Saladin of Egypt. Norbert Wiener spoke proudly of this legend, but did not vouch for its authenticity. Maimonides' versatility especially admired him.

The future founder of cybernetics was a child prodigy, a child with early awakened abilities. This was largely facilitated by his father, who worked with him according to his own program. Young Norbert read Darwin and Dante at the age of seven, graduated from high school at the age of eleven, and graduated from the higher educational institution, Tufts College, at the age of fourteen. Here he received his first degree - Bachelor of Arts.

Then he studied at Harvard University already as a graduate student (graduate student) and at the age of seventeen he became a master of arts, and at eighteen, in 1913, a doctor of philosophy in the specialty "mathematical logic". The title of Doctor of Philosophy in this case is not only a tribute to tradition, since Wiener first prepared himself for a philosophical career and only later gave preference to mathematics. At Harvard he studied philosophy under J. Santayana and J. Royce (whose name the reader will find in Cybernetics). Wiener's philosophical education was subsequently reflected in the development of the project of a new science and in the books that he wrote about it.

Harvard University provided the young doctor with a scholarship to travel to Europe. In 1913-1915. Wiener attended Cambridge University in England and Göttingen University in Germany, but returned to America due to the war and ended his educational journey at Columbia University in New York. In Cambridge, England, Wiener studied with the famous B. Russell, who at the beginning of the century was the leading authority in the field of mathematical logic, and with J. H. Hardy, a well-known mathematician and specialist in number theory. Subsequently Wiener wrote: "Russell gave me the very reasonable idea that a person who was going to specialize in mathematical logic and the philosophy of mathematics might know something of mathematics itself." In Göttingen, Wiener studied with the outstanding German mathematician D. Hilbert, listened to the lectures of the philosopher E. Husserl.

In 1915 the service began. Wiener got an assistant position in the philosophy department at Harvard, but only for a year. In search of happiness, he changed a number of places, was a journalist, wanted to join the soldiers. However, he, apparently, was sufficiently provided for and did not feel the need. Finally, with the assistance of the mathematician F.V. Osgood, a friend of his father, Wiener got a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1919, Wiener was appointed instructor (instructor) in the Department of Mathematics at MIT and since then has remained a member of the institute all his life. In 1926 Wiener married Marguerite Engemann, an American of German origin.

Wiener considered the years 1920-1925 the years of his formation in mathematics. He reveals a desire to solve complex physical and technical problems using the methods of modern abstract mathematics. He is engaged in the theory of Brownian motion, tries his hand at potential theory, develops a generalized harmonic analysis for the needs of communication theory. His academic career is slow but successful.

In 1932 Wiener is a full professor. He is gaining a name in the scientific circles of America and Europe. Dissertations are written under his supervision. He publishes a number of books and large memoirs on mathematics: Generalized Harmonic Analysis, Tauberian Theorems, Fourier Integral and Some of Its Applications, etc. A joint study with the German mathematician E. Hopf (or Hopf) on the radiative equilibrium of stars introduces science "Wiener-Hopf equation". Another joint work, the monograph "Fourier Transform in the Complex Domain" was written in collaboration with the English mathematician R. Paley. This book was published under tragic circumstances: even before its completion, an Englishman died in the Canadian Rockies during a ski trip. Wiener also pays tribute to technical creativity, in company with the Chinese scientist Yu.V. Lee and W. Bush, a well-known designer of analog computers. In 1935-1936. Wiener was vice president of the American Mathematical Society.

At present, the words "internet" or "computer" no longer surprise anyone. However, the emergence of intelligent machines that can calculate a large mathematical example with great speed or make contact with any point on the planet is closely related to the science of cybernetics. And for any knowledgeable person, "Norbert Wiener", "cybernetics" are two interrelated words. It is this man that society rightfully calls the "father" of this science.

short biography

Many biographers, when asked: “Who is Norbert Wiener?” Without hesitation, will answer that he is the most striking example of a child prodigy. The future father of cybernetics was born in America in the town of Columbia, Missouri, in 1894. His father was a native of the Russian Empire. He was a very educated and well-read man. He taught in literature and the history of the Slavic languages. A little later he received the position of head of the department.

From early childhood, his father prepared the boy for a career as a scientist. Perhaps, from the age of three years, Norbert Wiener has already begun his scientific path. A short biography in most publications begins from this age. At that time, the boy already knew how to read, write, and even helped his father translate the works of L.N. Tolstoy. At the age of eight, he already skillfully reads the works of Dante and the works of Darwin. He will write his first scientific work at the age when other peers of his age are just beginning to study the inscription of sticks and hooks.

Not really attending classes at a regular high school (some sources claim that he ignored it altogether), the boy enters a prestigious college, which he finishes ahead of schedule with honors. At eighteen, he defended his dissertation at Harvard, and a few years later became a professor at several higher educational institutions.

In his autobiography, to the question: "Who is Norbert Wiener?" the scientist replies that he is a mathematician. From an early age, he was better at mathematical science, although he also did not lose sight of the humanitarian aspects in education.

Work

It seems to many that a scientist is always a quiet professor in round glasses, sitting in his office and working on some project. Who is Norbert Wiener, who was he? This person was significantly different from the "standard" scientist with an office. In his life, the short-sighted and slightly clumsy scientist managed to work at a construction site, and at a military factory, and in a newspaper. I really wanted to join the army, but was expelled from there due to vision problems.

He devoted most of his life to education, both his own and others. He works simultaneously in more than ten universities, in various departments. Teaches mathematics, logic, natural science, literature, social sciences. At the same time, he independently studies foreign languages, masters even Chinese and Japanese.

Theorist

Who is Norbert Wiener: a practical person or a theoretical scientist? He himself called himself a theorist, preferred to think more and create scientific theories, proving them with facts. Together with Claude Shannon, he develops the modern theory of computer science.

Surely everyone is familiar with the concept of "bit". So it was this person who once came up with it to make it easier to describe the digital code. The scientist devoted a lot of works to computer technology, probability theory and electromagnetic networks.

Cybernetics

But this man is not known to the whole world for the idea of ​​​​creating a computer. What Norbert Wiener is famous for is the fact that he invented such a thing as cybernetics. It was he who began to develop science, the postulates of which allow you to create an artificial mind. The scientist presented cybernetics as an opportunity to transform the skills and abilities of animals, creating "training programs" for technology.

Wiener himself coined this word, borrowing it from the works of ancient Greek scientists. In those days, this meant "control of the ship," but Wiener transformed cybernetics into "control of intelligent machines." He compared man to a machine, to a clock mechanism that recycles energy.

A book called "Cybernetics" was released in 1948 in America. At that time, the scientist was already fifty-four years old. However, work, as many say, is not clear to everyone. To read this book and understand what it says, you need to have a fairly deep knowledge of mathematics, philosophy, engineering and neurophysiology.

Man in himself

Surely any actor who is to play the role of an enthusiastic and addicted scientist could borrow the image of Wiener. A typical nerd, with glasses and a goatee, awkward and awkward, absent-minded in communication with others and completely absorbed in his inner world and theories.

Eyewitnesses recalled that Wiener often, immersed in his thoughts, even forgot where he was going and what he wanted to do. Once, having encountered him in the alley, the student talked with the teacher, and then was puzzled by his question: “Don’t you remember where I was going: from the dining room or into it?”