Norbert Wiener
The founder of cybernetics, a field that explores control and communication in animals and machines.
Most quoted
"We are not fighting for a definitive victory in the indefinite future. It is the greatest possible victory to be, to continue to be, and to have been. No defeat can deprive us of the success of having existed for some moment of time in a universe that seems indifferent to us."
— from Cybernetics, 1948
"The future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence."
— from God and Golem, Inc., 1964
"It is my thesis that the physical functioning of the living individual and the operation of some of the newer communication machines are precisely parallel in their analogous attempts to control entropy through feedback."
— from Cybernetics, 1948
All quotes by Norbert Wiener (386)
We are not to be excused from the necessity of making decisions because we have to make them under a cloud of ignorance.
The world is an organism, not a machine.
The human brain is a poor computer, but a magnificent control mechanism.
Information is information, not matter or energy.
The future of the human race depends on the development of machines that can learn and adapt.
The machine is the modern genie, but it is a genie that we have created ourselves.
The greatest danger to humanity is not that machines will become too intelligent, but that we will become too stupid to control them.
The world is not a collection of independent parts, but a system of interconnected elements.
The human mind is a feedback loop, constantly adjusting its behavior based on the information it receives.
The purpose of science is not to conquer nature, but to understand it.
The machine is the modern mirror, reflecting our own strengths and weaknesses.
The world is a tapestry of information, constantly being woven and rewoven.
The human being is a message, constantly being sent and received.
The machine is a tool, but it is a tool that can shape us as much as we shape it.
The world is a symphony of feedback loops, constantly adjusting and harmonizing.
The human brain is a marvel of complexity, but it is a complexity that we can begin to understand.
The machine is a partner, but it is a partner that we must learn to trust.
The world is a dance of information, constantly flowing and transforming.
The human being is a story, constantly being told and retold.
The machine is a challenge, but it is a challenge that we can meet.
Contemporaries of Norbert Wiener
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Norbert Wiener (1894–1964).