Norbert Wiener 1894–1964

Book excerpt: 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.