Ancient history

And who was Norbert Wiener?

Universities, colleges and technological institutes today bear his name, but few of us know for sure who this man of science was who influenced much of the knowledge that today makes up the main inputs of scientific information, both for ordinary users and for researchers and creators of the 21st century. If we now speak of cybernetics, we owe it to him, since he was the one who coined the term, neither more nor less. The development of concepts related to quantum systems and neuroscience also began in his privileged brain, one of the most brilliant of the last century. Let's learn a little more about the life, work and legacy of this American researcher, whose name has transcended borders around the world.


Norbert Wiener's name will always be intrinsically related to science in general; more specifically to mathematics, but also to cybernetics, philosophy and a little less to zoology. Wiener entered the prestigious Tufts College in Boston at just eleven years old, to study mathematics. Three years later, he successfully graduated in this specialty, thus confirming his father's suspicions about his natural talent for the exact sciences.

The son of an immigrant of Polish origin, Leo Wiener, and a woman of German descent, Berta Kahn, both devoted to the Jewish religion, Norbert Wiener was born in Columbia, Missouri, in the United States of America, in 1894. The beginnings of the future father of Cybernetics were not the most promising. A failure in primary school motivated Norbert's father to take charge of his instruction personally, as his tutor. His father's extensive collection of books led the young scholar to become interested in various subjects, including mathematics. /P>

Guided by a constant spirit of inquiry and inquiry, the then budding eminent scientist studied Philosophy at Harvard University after completing his Mathematics studies at Tufts. The outstanding young man finished his Philosophy studies brilliantly when he was only 18 years old when he received his doctorate with an interesting thesis on mathematical logic.

After completing a trip to Europe, where he studied at the University of Cambridge (England) with Bertrand Russell, the distinguished English mathematician and philosopher; and at the University of Göttingen (Germany) where he carried out research on differential equations together with Hilbert and Landau, Norbert Wiener returned to his native country shortly before the start of the First World War. Being a professor of Philosophy at Harvard, he is contacted by the government of his country in order to carry out calculations on the subject of ballistics. Towards the end of this first global armed conflict, the learned researcher obtained a job as a professor at the prestigious technological institute of Mississippi, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Norbert Wiener is credited with having used, for the first time in one of his publications, the term "Cybernetics" to refer to the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems and information. In 1948, three years after the end of the Second World War, and as a result of a rigorous study that he had carried out on animals and human beings; Wiener published the first great work on Cybernetic science under the name:Cyberneticsor control and communication in the animal and the machine . This study is still valid today and has served as a basis and support for subsequent studies that have been done on this matter.

Cybernetics basically studied how the organism of an animal, as well as the interior of a machine, is capable of working and fulfilling the functions of a computer. By regulating all important, precise and essential information and indicators (temperature, water level, etc.); and making use of its internal communication system, the body would remain in full control of its faculties, managing to regulate the nervous and hormonal systems very efficiently.

Among Wiener's main publications we have:Nonlinear Problems in Random Theory (1958); God and Golem, Inc.:A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (1964); Cybernetics of the Nervous System (1965); Differential Space, Quantum Systems and Prediction (1966).

During World War II; Wiener is summoned again by the US government to work, this time within the army of his country. The US armed forces commissioned him to improve the anti-aircraft battery guidance system using high-precision radar. Through the support provided by Wiener, the US Army was able to predict, in a much more accurate way, the trajectory of missiles and bombers and thus guide the batteries in charge of bringing this threat down from the skies.

The famous French sociologist Phillipe Breton called Norbert Wiener the true father of modern communication because Wiener also postulated that, within our societies, it is impossible to achieve the main goals of communication. life together without the necessary information at the right time and place.

Wiener did a series of mathematical studies on the matter, convincingly proving how our societies would collapse if vital information is not transmitted to the right people at the right time. Undoubtedly, Wiener always underlined the communicative condition of the human being; condition that differentiated it from other beings.

Norbert Wiener died in Stockholm (Sweden) at the age of 69 on March 18, 1964.