I admit this is a book I have read multiple times. It is a book I have a strong affinity for. I come back to it every few years. Why? Norbert's views of the future were prescient of our times. He does a fine job of hi-lighting the dangers of a "machine à gouverner" and the implications thereof. In essence he describes what can happen if you were able to apply probabilistic control to humans and tie this back to feedback systems.
The book is wide ranging in its scope of thought and for that reason and more highly recommended.
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The Human Use Of Human Beings Paperback – March 22, 1988
by
Norbert Wiener
(Author)
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Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cyberneticsthe study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous systemWiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impactin effect, a third industrial revolutionthat the computer has had on our lives.
- Print length199 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateMarch 22, 1988
- Dimensions8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
- ISBN-100306803208
- ISBN-13978-0306803208
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4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
242 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2018
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2021
It seems like a pretty critical science and education for our 21st century and on if we're to advance as a human race to the stars yet have an understanding behind our motivations if what we're all gonna' be anyways is doomed eventually just as this planet, the sun and all the stars and even the universe. If you want o find out what cybernetics is this is more than a great primer.
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021
As noted in the title, the text is somewhat dated, but Wiener still has many insights worth attending to. Wiener was primarily a mathematician and logician, so one direction the interested reader might go is to supplement with more philosophically centered works. (Dewey's "Democracy and Education" and "The Public and its Problems" leap to mind here.)
Wiener's 'cybernetics' is not the simplistic reduction of the human mind to a computer that many folks seem to take it to be. With that in mind, his discussion of feedback and control can be understood in a far more nuanced manner than some later individuals have offered. Thus, it remains a worthwhile text to read, especially if one reads it in context and with care.
Wiener's 'cybernetics' is not the simplistic reduction of the human mind to a computer that many folks seem to take it to be. With that in mind, his discussion of feedback and control can be understood in a far more nuanced manner than some later individuals have offered. Thus, it remains a worthwhile text to read, especially if one reads it in context and with care.
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2019
This first half of this book was interesting, especially his description of control mechanisms. The book crescendos with a succinct description of the first and second industrial revolutions, and reaches its climax with his warning to us (70 years in the future) of the dangers we are flirting with concerning the development of artificial intelligence. I also listened to a lecture he gave in New York, available on YouTube, that accentuates some of his more important points.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2019
Pease everyone get this book and read it two to five times!
Pass it down to your children and grandchildren.
I truly believe that the brain as well as your mind is a real,
"Human Computer that you can use to program your self" to accomplish all goals in life, including losing weight and healing all diseaeses!
Pass it down to your children and grandchildren.
I truly believe that the brain as well as your mind is a real,
"Human Computer that you can use to program your self" to accomplish all goals in life, including losing weight and healing all diseaeses!
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2022
Norbert Weiner is one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century, yet his name is rarely spoken in the same paragraph as his contemporaries such as Tesla, Einstein, Oppenheimer or Watson & Crick. This is unfortunate as Weiner laid the intellectual groundwork for cybernetics and automation. In this book, he explores how society has transformed from one where humans used other humans, to one where humans use technology. Following this analogy, he explains human history, and how the Industrial Revolution has placed humanity into a stage of development that cannot be undone. Weiner gives insight into how technology has changed interpersonal relations, and relations between humans and nature. He also speculates on future inventions in the realm of automation and robotics that will expand the way humans interact with their surroundings, and with their own self over space and time. Taken together, this book is like a non-fiction primer for science fiction, showing the possible paths of technological development and hence social change. Written in the mid 20th century, the book might be boring to read for some audiences, but it is worth the time.
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2021
If you loved Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece about man and machine (and man within the machinery) then you should read this. He probably did. This 1950’s classic was ahead of its time.
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2017
We are in 1949, Wiener is lecturing us on communication of humans and its machines; the scope is broad: from physics to society. Regarding information, humans are patterns trying to perpetuate themselves fighting nature’s probabilistic tendency to disorder (second law of thermodynamics). How we are doing it? Well, the whole discussion unveils the beginning of the information revolution supported by computers. Hey, just 70 years ago, geniuses like Wiener and von Neumann weren't sure about machines beating humans on chess!
Top reviews from other countries
mf
5.0 out of 5 stars
landmark book
Reviewed in Canada on April 21, 2023
Very rewarding reading for those who are partial to mathematical thinking and concerned with understanding and guiding the interaction between AI and society. This book - written over 50 years ago by Norbert Wiener, a mathematician who was also considered the founder of cybernetics, later leading to modern-day AI - is still highly insightful and relevant today. It provides a wide foray into Wiener's pioneering thinking on the relationship of computers to the human nervous system and society as a whole. Wiener, a mathematician at MIT, was also a keen observer of society and an active contributor in several disciplines outside mathematics, such as engineering and biology: one of the last true polymaths in research mathematics. This book offers a unique opportunity to experience his insight in action.
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Martin L. Meenagh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Key but somewhat dense text
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 27, 2023
This is one of those books which resonated in the early days of machine learning and the mixture of behavioural theory with what became artificial intelligence. The author was a brilliant man but no writer, so it is a bit of a drag, but well worth the effort to assimilate something that had a significant impact on early cyberneticists.
Lysis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Historien om framtiden
Reviewed in Sweden on November 27, 2023
Norbert Wiener var inte bara en av de främsta matematikern som sett dagens ljus. Han hade också ett socialt patos. När han, och några fler, lagt den matematiska grunden för datorns arbete, oroade han sig. Han medverkade till cybernetikens födelse - styrman som begreppet står för - hämtat från grekiskan.
Hans oro gällde inte hur vi styr och kontrollerar maskiner - mer hur människor kan styra människor. Kalla system som, i sin kraft, också påverkar hur vi organiserar olika typer av verksamheter. Boken är en historisk milstolpe, och påminnelse, om hur cybernetiken kan medverka till att den mest långlivade högkulturen, den västerländska, kan ebba ut. Boken finns översatt till svenska - den förtjänar dock att läsas på det språk författaren kände.
Hans oro gällde inte hur vi styr och kontrollerar maskiner - mer hur människor kan styra människor. Kalla system som, i sin kraft, också påverkar hur vi organiserar olika typer av verksamheter. Boken är en historisk milstolpe, och påminnelse, om hur cybernetiken kan medverka till att den mest långlivade högkulturen, den västerländska, kan ebba ut. Boken finns översatt till svenska - den förtjänar dock att läsas på det språk författaren kände.
S.A.Singh
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most influential books of the 20th century
Reviewed in India on March 4, 2022
Norbert Wiener along with Shanon and others laid the foundation of digital age. Coined the term Cybernetics . The book brings out how feed back and entropy play a central role in all human activities. The book is not just to be read but the deeper meanings of communication digested for a fuller understanding of oneself, community and nature and our interrelationships.
Luis fernando
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book great info
Reviewed in Mexico on October 20, 2020
Great book , I am studying psicology , thru correct input they manipulate our subconcient, with subliminal audio or video










