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Norbet Wiener

God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion Paperback – March 15, 1966

by Norbert Wiener (Author)

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The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it—cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers.

A second point concerns machines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that God made man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function in which one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has made machines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image," and these machine images are not merely pictorial representations but operative images. Can we then say: God is to Golem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fully created, hence a monster, an automation.The third point considered is that of the relation between man and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's and unto the computer the things which are the computer's," warns the author. In this section of the book, Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man and machine. The book is written for the intellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based on lectures given at Yale, at the Société Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.

Print length

99 pages
Language

English
Publisher

MIT Press
Publication date

March 15, 1966
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.28 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0262730111
ISBN-13

978-0262730112
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) served on the faculty in the Department of Mathematics at MIT from 1919 until his death. In 1963, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to mathematics, engineering, and biological sciences. He was the author of many books, including Norbert Wiener—A Life in Cybernetics and the National Book Award-winning God & Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (both published by the MIT Press).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ MIT Press (March 15, 1966)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 99 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262730111
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262730112
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.28 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #396,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #53 in Cybernetics (Books)
- #482 in Science & Religion (Books)
- #8,944 in Philosophy (Books)

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4.7 28 ratings

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4.7 out of 5

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Stanimal!

There's knowledge in science but great wisdom in holy scripture for those with eyes to ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2018

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Anyone familiar with the subject matter and how it relates to the greater issues individuals in society are facing philosophically, practically, and morally today will gain deeper understanding from the ideas in this book. There's knowledge in science but great wisdom in holy scripture for those with eyes to see...

4 people found this helpful

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pen name

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2016

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A wonderful little gem from the early 1960s.

One person found this helpful

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Rafael

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2017

Excellent.

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2005

Weiner was something of a revolutionary in his time. He (among others) pushed the revolution in computing out of the slipstick era. He, at the height of the Cold War, wrote for audiences in both the USSR and the USA. Small wonder that he took on religion. I mean that he took it on as a duty and companion, not as an opponent, though many might have seen opposition.

Much of this book lacks direction. He skims issues that are still contentious, including the right to die. His arguments about self-reproducing machines tend twaords the vague, although he admits that he avoided tedious precision. Many of his points are clear and sharp, however. Drawing on the genie in the bottle, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, and other popular literature, he argues that the capabilities of technology steadily run ahead of our ability to predict and mitigate its consequences. He also notes, during first light of the transistor age, that "Living matter has a fine structure ... [approached by] machines which operate according to the principles of solid-state physics." As usual, technological optimism carried him well beyond justifiable extrapolation. Also as usual, he had a fair inkling of how today's 0.1 micron transistors might compare to 1.0 micron brain cells.

His sharpest commentary starts in the faith that scientists and engineers are moral people, and work in the belief of the human good that comes from their life's work. (Please, don't descend to the belief that we think we are evil people reveling in evil outcomes.) Weiner notes that the deepest hell in Dante's Inferno is reserved for the sin of simony - directing the Church's good power to personal gain, using the force of money. He draws a direct analogy to the sin of corrupting vast technological power towards personal gain, also using money as controlling force. If you're already queasy about the amorality of the MBA's "bottom line" ethos, this may give you some very bad dreams.

It's an important book. It's flawed, but has the honesty to ask hard questions. It also has the courage to attach a moral sense to the analytic trait of mind - it ought not be surprising that the two fit closely.

Among all the quotable lines in this book, one stands out: "... remember that in the game of atomic warfare, there are no experts." Here, now, under the president that demolished 30 years of arms control treaties, it's a phrase to remember.

//wiredweird

19 people found this helpful

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Oleg Sakharov

Fascinating reading

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2012

"God and Golem, Inc." by Norbert Wiener is a curious set of publications united under one title. It looks like all today's inventions and science paradigms were discovered long time ago. Would be interesting for A.I. and IT researchers.

One person found this helpful

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Andrew D. Oram

Historic value but unfocused

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2015

This is a useful historical text to consider in debates about how far to entrust decisions to search engines, expert computer systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other automated agents. Wiener, succinctly and with persuasive examples, makes an argument similar to Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason about the necessity of drawing on the judgment of people. Short as it is, this book meanders somewhat. One could easily become derailed near the beginning with some highly speculative technical mumbo-jumbo (it almost seems that Wiener threw it in for that purpose), and he also digresses for commentary on the U.S.-Soviet ideological battles of the day. Furthermore, religious references are restricted to the very beginning.

2 people found this helpful

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Arthur Gershman

Pure Genius

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2001

In reviewing this book I feel a little like Icarus. I feel afraid to fly to close to the sun of Norbert Wiener's genius, herein exposed full force. For example, have you ever been asked the chicken and egg question? Norbert Wiener answers thusly, "a hen is merely an egg's way of making another egg.." Contrast this with "The Selfish Gene" which took Richard Dawkins a whole book to say. (See my review of this book elsewhere at Amazon.com.)
The subtitle sets forth, in brilliant compaction, the theme of this essentially extended essay: "A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Relgion."
First, Wiener considers machines which learn.
Next, Wiener considers machines which reproduce themselves.
Wiener's work anticipates the entire modern field of bioethics. As Wiener says in his final chapter, "I have now run through a number of essays that are united by covering the entire theme of creative activity, from God to the machine, under one set of concepts. The machine, as I have already said is the modern counterpart of the Golem of the Rabbi of Prague." If you are concerned about cloning, or man playing God, I urge you to buy and study this book.

8 people found this helpful

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