Norbert+Wiener+Book+Review


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**__Dark Hero Discussions__**

a discussion regarding the book, //Dark Hero of the Information Age:// In search of Norbert Wiener the father of cybernetics

Written by Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman [|New York: Basic Books]



__Featuring__

Elizabeth Schroeder Edmée Hernandez Dan Lerch Michael Meyer Tarkey Alhozaimy (Ghost of Norbert Weiner)

__**Next meeting (tentative):**__

Sunday March 15th, 6 PM


 * __Presentation Delagation:__**

Mike:

Childhood; College at Tufts; graduate school at Harvard.

Liz:

Tryout for Military: MIT teachning begins; Abroad in UK & Germany.

Dan:

Professional Career: Telogogical Society, Cybernetics, to WWII & Aberdeen

Edmée:

Literary Career: //Cybernetics, Human Use of Human Beings, "The Yellow Peril"//

Tarkey:

Norbert Wiener's impact on Information Technology.

__Topic Suggestions (put most recent on top):__

Dan : Mike, I'm impressed with your ideas. Thanks for participating! Yes I agree with you that cybernetics is still in use today, albeit in a different form. Wiener's wife clearly hindered its initial development. Is this worth discussing in our presentation? Maybe there are some sociological implications about how one person's meddling can have an enormous impact on a society, but I'm falling quickly out of favor with it. I think we should focus on the positive impacts of his innovations and prescience of his predictions. Focusing on Wiener’s personal problems, while being terrific gossip, probably wouldn’t be very helpful. I think you're on to something with the current economic downturn as it relates to stasis (or lack thereof). We should definitely consider the feedback ideas and circular causality too. Lastly, I think it might be helpful to note the analog nature of Wiener's work - and how it may be more relevant in the future than many digital concepts. If that doesn't eat up 15 minutes nothing will.

Mike: Hey Dan, good idea. I told you guys it was wee ner! I must disagree with you though: I don't think cybernetics has demised, only changed in name. A strong element of the book is that it argues Weiner's contributions are still relevant and in use today. Kind of like Einstein, but Einstein got more credit. Which brings us to another aspect of the book, that Weiner was discredited, the reasons why others cashed in on his creations (because he was socially inept, or anti-establishment, or anti-war, or his wife prevented it, etc.). I think the book tries hard to explain the reasons why nobody has heard of him, this is a major theme of the book. I also think the feedback idea and circular causality is one of the most interesting ideas in the book. Perhaps we could illustrate some practical examples of how humans and machines self-regulate. ALSO, the brilliance of cybernetics lies in its cross-disciplinary appliciations. For instance, imagine how the current economic downturn could be seen through a cybernetic lense: as negative feedback resulting from the need for economic stasis. Just some ideas...

Dan:

I think we had some really good ideas after class - namely discussing the birth and untimely demise of a new science (Cybernetics). We could also devote time discussing Norbert Wiener's social activism.

Because we only have 15 minutes to present, we'll have to get the timing down too.

We definetely will need some visuals. Cover of the book, pictures of Wiener, some of the devices he was working on. Maybe a couple slides using powerpoint? What do you guys think?

Looks like we don't need to do this - YES! Lastly, we should probably agree to each write a section of the group paper - about 1 to 2 pages a person. After that, we can "peer review" each other's work and put it all together. Obviously we can figure this out more when we meet next week.



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