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)
The human brain is the most complex machine in the universe.
We are living in a new age, an age of information.
The scientist has a moral responsibility to society.
The greatest danger to humanity is not the machine, but the misuse of the machine.
The world is not a collection of isolated facts, but a system of interconnected relationships.
The future is not predetermined, but is shaped by our choices.
The purpose of science is to understand the world, not to control it.
The machine can only do what we tell it to do.
The human mind is capable of great things, but it is also capable of great errors.
We must learn to live with the machine, not to fear it.
The world is full of surprises, and we must be prepared for them.
The greatest challenge facing humanity is to create a society that is both just and sustainable.
The machine is a reflection of ourselves.
The future is not something that happens to us, but something we create.
The scientist must be both a visionary and a pragmatist.
The world is a dynamic system, and we must learn to adapt to its changes.
The machine is a tool for extending our human capabilities.
The human spirit is indomitable.
We must use our knowledge to improve the human condition.
The world is a tapestry of interconnected events.
Contemporaries of Norbert Wiener
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Norbert Wiener (1894–1964).