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)
Love is the answer.
We are all stardust.
The universe is a symphony, and we are all instruments.
The human mind is a powerful tool, and we should use it wisely.
The greatest gift you can give is your time.
Life is a journey, not a destination.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
The best way to predict the future is to create it.
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
Man is a creature of habit.
The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
The new machines have a great capacity for good and for evil. Their future is in our hands.
The human being, like the machine, is a communication system.
The machine, like the human being, is a communication system.
The machine is the modern genie, but it is a genie that can be controlled only by those who understand its language.
The machine is not an angel, nor is it a devil. It is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used for good or for evil.
The machine is not a substitute for the human mind, but it is a powerful aid to it.
The machine is not a threat to human dignity, but it is a challenge to human ingenuity.
Contemporaries of Norbert Wiener
Other Mathematicss born within 50 years of Norbert Wiener (1894–1964).