I Am Mathematician
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wiener's personal memoirs rather than a recapitulation of his professional accomplishments
July 19, 2007
Norbert Wiener was a first class mathematician and collaborator, yet he doesn't seem to get the due credit for both. As a globetrotting collaborator, he spent significant amounts of time in India, China, Mexico and many of the countries in Europe. This was before the advent of regular international flights, so his trips took a significant amount of time, which is why he spent so much time in those countries once he got there. Wiener also collaborated with Paul Erdos, the one person whose mathematical globetrotting clearly exceeds that of Wiener.
This is not a book about mathematics or even the mathematics that Wiener worked on. The main theme is the adult life of Wiener, where he went, what he did and the people he did it with. There are few phrases or even words that require any significant background in mathematics if they are to be understood. The style is that of a man who is simply talking about his life, setting down his personal memoirs rather than a recapitulation of his professional life.
While Wiener occasionally gets into the juicy side of personalities, that is a rare sidetrack, this is a book about Norbert Wiener. The titles of his two autobiographical books are "Ex-prodigy: My Childhood and Youth" and "I Am A Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy." Wiener was known for his ego and that is demonstrated in the titles of these books. Some of that comes through in this book but thankfully; he does manage to keep that aspect of his personality in check.
This is not a book about mathematics or even the mathematics that Wiener worked on. The main theme is the adult life of Wiener, where he went, what he did and the people he did it with. There are few phrases or even words that require any significant background in mathematics if they are to be understood. The style is that of a man who is simply talking about his life, setting down his personal memoirs rather than a recapitulation of his professional life.
While Wiener occasionally gets into the juicy side of personalities, that is a rare sidetrack, this is a book about Norbert Wiener. The titles of his two autobiographical books are "Ex-prodigy: My Childhood and Youth" and "I Am A Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy." Wiener was known for his ego and that is demonstrated in the titles of these books. Some of that comes through in this book but thankfully; he does manage to keep that aspect of his personality in check.
1 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Well written biography - what can I say else? It was very interesting to read the book.
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- Fourier Series by G. H. Hardy on page 180
- Huckleberry Finn. Original by Mark Twain (Fast Track Classics) by Pauline Francis on page 45
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- Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology) by David A. Mindell on 4 pages
- Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence (Helix Books) by George B. Dyson in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- History Of Communication Study by Everett M. Rogers on page 405, and page 433
- Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just by Kenneth R. Manning in Back Matter
- Kalman Filtering : Theory and Practice Using MATLAB by Mohinder S. Grewal in Back Matter
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