Abstract
Despite the fact that Wiener had never strictly speaking abandoned scientific research, what most interested him after Cybernetics was his reflection on the ethics of science and technology in the new cybernetic age.
I do not blame the American intellectual for a hostile attitude to science and the machine age. […] I do blame him for a lack of interest in the machine age. […] He shows a willingness to accept the trends of the day as disagreeable but inevitable. In fact, he reminds one of the refined creatures in a fable of Lord Dunsany. These delicate and refined beings have become so used to being consumed by a grosser and more brutal race that they accept their fate as natural and proper, and welcome the axe which takes their heads off.
Norbert Wiener, The human use of human beings [50j, 163].
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Notes
- 1.
Von Neumann to Wiener, 4 September 1949, cit. by Aspray (1990a, 327), note 155.
- 2.
Wiener to von Neumann, 10 August 1949 (WAMIT). Cit. by Heims (1984 [1980], 212). Wiener added “As Grey Walter in England has just made a machine with ethics of its own, it may be an opportunity for a new Kinsey report”. The “Kinsey report” was a book on the sexual behavior of males by Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin 1948, which had just become a bestseller.
- 3.
Cf. von Neumann to Wiener, 4 September 1949 (WAMIT). Cit. by Heims (1984 [1980], 212–213).
- 4.
Von Neumann to Norman Cousins , 22 May 1946 (VNLC). Cit. by Heims (1984 [1980], 235). Replying to a second invitation, von Neumann stated: “I do not want to appear in public in a not primarily technical context”, von Neumann to Hyman Goldsmith , 5 October 1948 (VNLC). Cit. by Heims (1984 [1980], 235).
- 5.
Wiener appears on the list of those present at the conference, but he does not seem to have presented any paper (Cf. Archibald 1946).
- 6.
Cf. Telecommunications systems: network milestones, in [EB 1997].
- 7.
This fact, although with some differences, has also been understood in The closed world (Edwards 1997). I had come to similar conclusions independently, in my article Cibernetica e guerra fredda (Cybernetics and the Cold War) [Montagnini 2000]. However, the main actor in the “discourse” glimpsed by Edwards in Cold War policy, was it seems the United States, and its aim was merely “control” in a negative sense. On the contrary, in my opinion, the USA and the USSR played a sort of long table tennis match, creating a typical loop.
- 8.
Von Neumann to Strauss, 21 November 1951, cit. by Heims (1984 [1980], 287).
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Bateson to Wiener, 22 September 1952, cit. by Heims (1977, 148).
- 11.
The notion of ‘maelstrom’ in human relationships has been discussed with reference to Bateson by Elias (1987 [1983]). For an attempt to mathematize this human social dynamics, see, e.g., the classic work on the arms race by Richardson (1960).
- 12.
Remark to Wiener by J.B. Wiesner (Cf. 50j, 141).
- 13.
See the survey on the reception of Wiener’s ideas by sociologists, reported in (Geyer and Van Der Zowen 1994). However, Geyer and Van Der Zowen neglect e.g. the strong influence on Talcott Parsons , one of the most eminent sociologists of the day; cf. in particular (Parsons 1966, 28 ff.).
- 14.
Wiener’s idea that science arises from the encounter between skilled craftsmen and scholars is supported by extensive evidence in the history and sociology of science (see, e.g., Zilsel 1942; Hall 1959; Rossi 1962) .
- 15.
Wiener to Epstein, 2 August 1957, cit. by Heims 1993, XIII.
- 16.
In 1932, “a couple of the Italian mathematicians broached to me the subject of an invitation to lecture in Italy. I had no sympathy with Fascism and resented the completely Fascist and official auspices of this invitation. I talked the matter over with Leon Lichtenstein, who was also a participant in the meeting, and he told me to forget the politics and accept the offer. However, I heard nothing more of the offer, and they must have come to the conclusion that my opinions would not go well in Fascist Italy” (64g [56g], 163).
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Montagnini, L. (2017). After Cybernetics . In: Harmonies of Disorder. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50657-9_11
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