1. John Pfeiffer, “Man’s Brain Child,” New York Times, April 18, 1965, https://tinyurl.com/y9xccjpu.
2. Kai-Fu Lee, “Tech Companies Should Stop Pretending AI Won’t Destroy Jobs,” MIT Technology Review, February 21, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ya7spngu. In September 2018, Lee published AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order.
3. See Matthew Desmond, “Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.” New York Times Magazine, September 11, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y7ghzuqp; Eduardo Porter, “Tech Is Splitting the U.S. Workforce in Two,” New York Times, February 4, 2019, https://nyti.ms/2DSI2KZ.
4. Amy Bernstein and Anand Raman, “The Great Decoupling: An Interview with Erik Byrnjolfsson and Andrew McAfee,” Harvard Business Review, June 2015, https://hbr.org/2015/06/the-great-decoupling
5. Norbert Wiener, “Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation,” Science, New Series 131, no. 3410 (May 6, 1960), 1355.
6. On the 1965 blackout, see James Burke, Connections (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978), 1–2; David E. Sanger, “Russian Hackers Appear to Shift Focus to U.S. Power Grid,” New York Times, July 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y94f4egl.
7. Nelson D. Schwartz and Louise Story, “High-Speed Trading Glitch Costs Investors Billions,” New York Times, May 6, 2010, http://nyti.ms/aAzXcc; Thomas Heath, “The Warning From JPMorgan about Flash Crashes Ahead,” Washington Post, September 5, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ychvmcve.
8. Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings, Houghton Mifflin, 1950, 37.
9. Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Nobert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics (New York: Basic Books, 2004), 4.
10. See the joint edition of his two-volume autobiography, Norbert Wiener: A Life in Cybernetics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017), 55, 57. Ronald R. Kline’s introduction to that edition mentions the original title of Ex-Prodigy on p. xii.
11. Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero, p. 5.
12. Wiener, A Life in Cybernetics, 284.
13. Steve J. Heims, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1980), 140.
14. N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 18.
15. The conviction that Wiener’s ideas have become increasingly relevant in the digital era inspired the IEEE to sponsor two “Reintroducing Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century” conferences, one in 2014 and the second in 2016. See http://21stcenturywiener.org.
16. Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero, 243.
17. Drew Harwell, “Google to Drop Pentagon AI Contract after Employee Objections to the ‘Business of War,’” Washington Post, June 1, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y75e6bn9.
18. Wiener, Human Use, 17.
19. Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero, 93–98, 217–230; Heims, John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, 379–389.
20. Heims, 377.
21. Conway and Siegelman, Dark Hero, 16; Wiener, A Life in Cybernetics, 459–460; Heims, 155.
22. See, for example, David Streitfeld, “Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats,” New York Times, October 12, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y8y4qdl2; Noam Cohen, “Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend,” New York Times, October 13, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y9omhyoe; Jamie Doward, “The Big Tech Backlash,” The Guardian, January 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y77vku5j; and Noah Kulwin, “The Internet Apologizes,” New York Magazine, April 13, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/ybtml5d6.
1. Claude E. Shannon, “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” Bell System Technical Journal 27, no. 3 (1948): 379–423, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x.
2. W. Shockley, “The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors,” Bell System Technical Journal 28 (1949): 435–489, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1949.tb03645.x.
3. A. M. Turing, “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society S2-42 (January 1937): 230–265, https://doi.org/10.1112/plms/s2-42.1.230; John von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1958).
4. Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1948), 42.
5. Wiener, Cybernetics, 162.
6. See, for example, Mark Davis and Alison Etheridge, Louis Bachelier’s Theory of Speculation: The Origins of Modern Finance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).
7. See Norbert Wiener, Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Time Series, with Engineering Applications (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1949).
8. Wiener, Cybernetics, 10, 11.
9. See R. S. Liptser and A. N. Shiryaev, “Computation of Mutual Information and Channel Capacity of a Gaussian Channel with Feedback,” in Statistics of Random Processes, vol. 2 (Berlin: Springer, 1978), 190–194.
10. W. Feller, An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications, vol. 2 (New York: Wiley, 1971).
11. R. E. Kalman and R. S. Bucy, “New Results in Linear Filtering and Predication Theory,” Journal of Basic Engineering 83 (1961): 95–108, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3658902.
12. For an information theoretic interpretation of the Kalman–Bucy filter, see S. K. Mitter and N. J. Newton, “Information and Entropy Flow in the Kalman–Bucy Filter,” Journal of Statistical Physics 118, nos. 1–2 (2005): 145–176, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-004-8781-9; and S. K. Mitter, “Filtering and Stochastic Control: A Historical Perspective,” IEEE Control Systems 16 (1996): 67–76, https://doi.org/10.1109/37.506400.
13. Mitter, “Filtering and Stochastic Control.”
14. Wiener’s suggestions have been further developed by G. C. Newton, L. A. Gould, and J. F. Kaiser in Analytical Design of Linear Feedback Controls (New York: Wiley, 1957).
15. See Mitter, “Filtering and Stochastic Control.”
16. Wiener, Cybernetics, 113.
17. Wiener, 112.
18. Wiener, 57, 58.
19. H. Sandberg, J.-C. Delvenne, N. J. Newton, and S. K. Mitter, “Maximum Work Extraction and Implementation Costs for Nonequilibrium Maxwell’s Demon,” Physical Review E 90 (2014): 042119, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.90.042119.
20. Mitter, “Filtering and Stochastic Control.”
21. N. Wiener, Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966).
22. K. Ito, “Multiple Wiener Integrals,” Journal of the Mathematical Society of Japan 3 (1951): 157–169, https://doi.org/10.2969/jmsj/00310157.
23. Wiener, Cybernetics, 178–180.
24. N. Wiener, “Generalized Harmonic Analysis,” Acta Mathematica 55 (1930): 117–258; Wiener, Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory.
25. Wiener, 192.
1. Wiener, N., The Human Use of Human Beings; Cybernetics and Society, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1950.
2. Wiener, N., Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory, The Technology Press of M.I.T. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1958.
3. Here I am using the term “non-linear system” not to exclude linear systems but to include a larger category of systems. The analysis of non-linear systems by means of random noise is also applicable to linear systems and has been so used.
4. The terms “black box” and “white box” are convenient and figurative expressions of not very well-determined usage. I shall understand by a black box a piece of apparatus, such as four-terminal networks with two input and two output terminals, which performs a definite operation on the present and past of the input potential, but for which we do not necessarily have any information of the structure by which this operation is performed. On the other hand, a white box will be a similar network in which we have built in the relation between input and output potentials in accordance with a definite structural plan for securing a previously determined input-output relation.
5. Bose, A. G., “Nonlinear System Characterization and Optimization,” IRE Transactions on Information Theory, IT–5, 30–40 (1959) (Special supplement to IRE Transactions).
6. Gabor, D., “Electronic Inventions and Their Impact on Civilization,” Inaugural Lecture, March 3, 1959, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, England.
7. Wiener, N., and P. Masani, “The Prediction Theory of Multivariate Stochastic Processes,” Part I, Acta Mathematica, 98, 111–150 (1957); Part II, ibid., 99, 93–137 (1958). Also Wiener, N., and E. J. Akutowicz, “The Definition and Ergodic Properties of the Stochastic Adjoint of a Unitary Transformation,” Rendiconti del Circolo Matematico di Palermo, Ser. II, VI, 205–217 (1957).
8. Samuel, A. L., “Some Studies in Machine Learning, Using the Game of Checkers,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, 3, 210–229 (1959).
9. Watanabe, S., “Information Theoretical Analysis of Multivariate Correlation,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, 4, 66–82 (1960).
10. Stanley-Jones, D., and K. Stanley-Jones, Kybernetics of Natural Systems, A Study in Patterns of Control, Pergamon Press, London, 1960.
1. MacColl, L. A., Fundamental Theory of Servomechanisms, Van Nostrand, New York, 1946.
2. Rosenblueth, A., N. Wiener, and J. Bigelow, “Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology,” Philosophy of Science, 10, 18–24 (1943).
3. Kolmogoroff, A. N., “Interpolation und Extrapolation von stationären Zufälligen Folgen,” Bull. Acad. Sci. U.S.S.R., Ser. Math. 5, 3–14 (1941).
4. Schrödinger, Erwin, What is Life?, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 1945.
5. Maxwell, J, C., Proc. Roy. Soc. (London), 16, 270–283, (1868).
6. Turing, A. M., “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Ser. 2, 42, 230–265 (1936).
7. McCulloch, W. S., and W. Pitts, “A logical calculus of the ideas immanent in nervous activity,” Bull. Math. Biophys, 5, 115–133 (1943).
8. Levinson, N., J. Math. and Physics, 25, 261–278; 26, 110–119 (1947).
9. Lee, Y. W., J. Math. and Physics, 11, 261–278 (1932).
10. Wiener, N., Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series, Technology Press and Wiley, New York, 1949.
11. Wiener, N., and A. Rosenblueth, “The Mathematical Formulation of the Problem of Conduction of Impulses in a Network of Connected Excitable Elements, Specifically in Cardiac Muscle,” Arch. Inst. Cardiol. Méx., 16, 205–265 (1946).
12. Unpublished articles on clonus from the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología, Mexico.
13. Fortune, 32, 139–147 (October); 163–169 (November, 1945).
1. Oxtoby, J. C., and S. M. Ulam, “Measure-Preserving Homeomorphisms and Metrical Transitivity.” Ann. of Math., Ser. 2, 42, 874–920 (1941).
2. Nevertheless some of Osgood’s early work represented an important step in the direction of the Lebesgue integral.
3. Hopf, E., “Ergodentheorie,” Ergeb. Math., 5, No. 2, Springer, Berlin (1937).
4. Wiener, N., The Fourier Integral and Certain of Its Applications, The University Press, Cambridge, England, 1933; Dover Publications, Inc., N.Y.
5. Haar, H., “Der Massbegriff in der Theorie der Kontinuierlichen Gruppen.” Ann. of Math., Ser. 2, 34, 147–169 (1933).
1. Here the author makes use of a personal communication of J. von Neumann.
2. Paley, R. E. A. C., and N. Wiener, “Fourier Transforms in the Complex Domain,” Colloquium Publications, Vol. 19, American Mathematical Society, New York, 1934, Chapter 10.
3. Stieltjes, T. J. Annales de la Fae. des Sc. de Toulouse, 1894, p. 165; Lebesgue, H., Leçons sur l’Intégration, Gauthier-Villars et Cie, Paris, 1928.
4. This is the mixing property of Koopman, which is the necessary and sufficient ergodic assumption to justify statistical mechanics.
5. We refer especially to recent papers by Dr. Y. W. Lee.
6. See writings of R. A. Fisher and J. von Neumann.
1. Poincaré, H., Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Mécanique Céleste, Gauthier-Villars et fils, Paris, 1892–1899.
2. Cannon, W., The Wisdom of the Body, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1932; Henderson, L. J., The Fitness of the Environment, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1913.
1. Journal of the Franklin Institute, various papers, 1930 on.
2. Turing, A. M., “On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Ser. 2, 42, 230–265 (1936).
1. Personal communication of Dr. W. Grey Walter, of Bristol, England.
1. Thompson, D’Arcy, On Growth and Form, Amer. ed., The Macmillan Company, New York, 1942.
1. Huxley, J., Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, Harper Bros., New York, 1943.
2. von Neumann, J., and O. Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1944.
3. Wiener, N., Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series with Engineering Applications, The Technology Press of M.I.T. and John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1949.
4. Samuel, A. L., “Some Studies in Machine Learning, Using the Game of Checkers,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, 3, 210–229 (1959).
5. Watanabe, S., “Information Theoretical Analysis of Multivariate Correlation,” IBM Journal of Research and Development, 4, 66–82 (1960).
6. Wiener, N., The Human Use of Human Beings; Cybernetics and Society, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1950.
7. Wiener, N., Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory, The Technology Press of M.I.T. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1958.
8. Gabor, D., “Electronic Inventions and Their Impact on Civilization,” Inaugural Lecture, March 3, 1959, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, England.
1. Taylor, G. I., “Diffusion by Continuous Movements,” Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, Ser. 2, 20, 196–212 (1921–1922).
2. Barlow, J. S., and R. M. Brown, An Analog Correlator System for Brain Potentials, Technical Report 300, Research Laboratory of Electronics, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. (1955).
3. This work was undertaken with the cooperation of the Neurophysiology Laboratory of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Communications Biophysics Laboratory of M.I.T.
4. The IBM-709 at the M.I.T. Computation Center was used.
5. Wiener, N., “Generalized Harmonic Analysis,” Acta Mathematica, 55, 117–258 (1930); Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory, The Technology Press of M.I.T. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1958.
6. Wiener, N., “The Ergodic Theorem,” Duke Mathematical Journal, 5, 1–39 (1939); also in Modern Mathematics for the Engineer, E. F. Beckenbach (Ed.), McGraw-Hill, New York, 1956, pp. 166–168.
7. Wiener, N., “Plancherel’s Theorem,” The Fourier Integral and Certain of Its Applications, The University Press, Cambridge, England, 1933, pp. 46–71; Dover Publications, Inc., New York.
8. This is a simplified picture of what happens, especially in the cortex, since the all-or-none operation of neurons depends on their being of a sufficient length so that the remaking of the form of the incoming impulses in the neuron itself approaches an asymptotic form. However, in the cortex for example, owing to the shortness of the neurons, the necessity of synchronization still exists, although the details of the process are much more complicated.
9. I must say that some evidence of the existence of narrow central rhythms has been obtained by Dr. W. Grey Walter of the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol, England. I am not acquainted with the full details of his methodology; however, I understand that the phenomenon to which he refers consists in the fact that in his toposcopic pictures of brain waves, as one goes out from the center, the rays indicating the frequency are confined to relatively narrow sectors.
10. Barlow, J. S., “Rhythmic Activity Induced by Photic Stimulation in Relation to Intrinsic Alpha Activity of the Brain in Man,” EEG Clin. Neurophysiol., 12, 317–326 (1960).
11. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology, Volume XXV (Biological Clocks), The Biological Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, L.I., N.Y., 1960.