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Biography Norbert Wiener was the first child of Leo Wiener, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, and Bertha Kahn, of German-Jewish descent. Employing high pressure methods of his own invention, Leo educated Norbert at home until 1903, except for a brief interlude when Norbert was 7 years of age. Thanks to his father's tutelage and his own abilities, Wiener became a child prodigy. The first volume of Wiener's autobiography dwells on this period in considerable detail. Although Leo earned his living teaching German and Slavic languages, he read widely and accumulated a personal library from which the young Norbert benefited much. Leo also had ample ability in mathematics, and tutored his son in the subject until he left home. After graduating from Ayer High School in 1906 at 11 years of age, Wiener entered Tufts College. He was awarded a BA in mathematics in 1909 at the age of 14, whereupon he began graduate studies in zoology at Harvard. In 1910 he transferred to Cornell to study philosophy. The next year he returned to Harvard, while still continuing his philosophical studies. Back at Harvard, Wiener came under the influence of Edward Vermilye Huntington, whose mathematical interests ranged from axiomatic foundations to problems posed by engineering. Harvard awarded Wiener a Ph.D. in 1912, when he was a mere 18, for a dissertation on mathematical logic, supervised by Karl Schmidt, whose essential results were published as Wiener (1914). In that dissertation, he was the first to see that the ordered pair can be defined in terms of elementary set theory. Hence relations can be wholly grounded in set theory, so that the theory of relations does not require any axioms or primitive notions distinct from those of set theory. In 1921, Kuratowski proposed a simplification of Wiener's definition of the ordered pair, and that simplification has been in common use ever since. In 1914, Wiener travelled to Europe, to study under Bertrand Russell and G. H. Hardy at Cambridge University, and under David Hilbert and Edmund Landau at the University of Göttingen. In 1915-16, he taught philosophy at Harvard, then worked for General Electric and wrote for the Encyclopedia Americana. When WWI broke out, Oswald Veblen invited him to work on ballistics at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Thus Wiener the eventual pacifist wore a uniform 1917-18. Living and working with other mathematicians strengthened and deepened his interest in mathematics. After the war, Wiener was unable to secure a position at Harvard because he was Jewish (despite his father being the first tenured Jew at Harvard), and was rejected for a position at the University of Melbourne. At W. F. Osgood's invitation, Wiener became an instructor in mathematics at MIT, where he spent the remainder of his career, rising to Professor. In 1926, Wiener returned to Europe as a Guggenheim scholar. He spent most of his time at Göttingen and with Hardy at Cambridge, working on Brownian motion, the Fourier integral, Dirichlet's problem, harmonic analysis, and the Tauberian theorems. Wiener's parents did not tell him that he was of Jewish ancestry. In 1926, his parents arranged his marriage to a German immigrant, Margaret Engemann, who was not Jewish; they had two daughters. Margaret was a Nazi sympathizer and did not keep that fact a secret. During World War II, his work on the automatic aiming and firing of anti-aircraft guns led Wiener to communication theory and eventually to formulate cybernetics. After the war, his prominence helped MIT to recruit what was perhaps the world's first research team in cognitive science, made up of some of the brightest researchers in neuropsychology and the mathematics and biophysics of the nervous system, including Warren Sturgis McCulloch and Walter Pitts. These men went on to make pioneering contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence. Shortly after this painstakingly assembled research group was formed, Wiener suddenly and inexplicably broke off all contact with its members. Speculation still flourishes as to why this split occurred; were the reasons professional, was his hypersensitive personality to blame, or did the split result from intrigues by his spouse Margaret? Whatever the reason, the split led to the premature end of one of the most promising scientific research teams of the era. Nevertheless, Wiener went on to break new ground in cybernetics, robotics, computer control, and automation. He freely shared his theories and findings, and generously credited the contributions of others. This stance resulted in his being well-disposed towards Soviet researchers and their findings, which placed him under regrettable suspicion during the Cold War. He was a strong advocate of automation to improve the standard of living, and to overcome economic underdevelopment. His ideas became influential in India, whose government he advised during the 1950s. Wiener declined an invitation to join the Manhattan Project, and was arguably the most distinguished scientist to do so. After the war, he became increasingly concerned with what he saw as political interference in scientific research, and the militarization of science. His article "A Scientist Rebels" in the January 1947 issue of The Atlantic Monthly urged scientists to consider the ethical implications of their work. After the war, he refused to accept any government funding or to work on military projects. The way Wiener's stance towards nuclear weapons and the Cold War contrasted with that of John von Neumann is the central theme of Heims (1980). Anecdotes At MIT, Wiener was notorious for his poor lecturing style, his jokes, and his absent-mindedness. He was known to be hypersensitive to criticism, and subject to fits of depression. He also became the butt of many comical anecdotes, a few of which follow: Awards and honors See also Writings Autobiography: | ||||||||||
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