Dark Hero of the Information Age : In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics

by Conway, Flo

• ISBN13: 9780738203683
• ISBN10: 0738203688
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-13
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman are award-winning journalists and the authors of the bestselling Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change and Holy Terror: The Fundamentalist War on America’s Freedoms in Religion, Politics, and Our Private Lives. They live in New York City. Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman are award-winning journalists and the authors of the bestselling Snapping: America’s Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change and Holy Terror: The Fundamentalist War on America’s Freedoms in Religion, Politics, and Our Private Lives. They live in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue Time Past, Time Present	ix
PART 1 THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD	1	(128)
1 The Most Remarkable Boy in the World	3	(25)
2 Young Wiener	28	(19)
3 The Wunderkind and the Frau-Professor	47	(16)
4 Weak Currents, Light Computers	63	(19)
5 Wienerwalks	82	(21)
6 Birth of a Science	103	(26)
PART 2 IN THE COURT OF CYBERNETICS	129	(106)
7 The Knights of Circular Causality	131	(23)
8 Breakfast at Macy's	154	(17)
9 The Big Bang: Cybernetics	171	(24)
10 Wienerwalks II	195	(18)
11 Breach and Betrayal	213	(22)
PART 3 AFTERMATH	235	(102)
12 A Scientist Rebels	237	(18)
13 A Government Reacts	255	(17)
14 Wienerwalks III	272	(23)
15 Homage to the Elephant's Child: The 'Satiable Soul of Norbert Wiener	295	(17)
16 Childhood's End	312	(25)
Epilogue Time Future: Surviving the Global Society	337	(12)
Acknowledgments	349	(4)
Notes	353	(46)
Bibliography	399	(14)
Index	413