Norbert Wiener

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Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 16, 1964) was an American scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. He served as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is considered as the father of cybernetics[1] and computer ethics[2]. The results of his work in mathematics, cybernetics, communication theory, computer design, information theory and philosophy are considered to be a foundation for both the modern information age and information and computer ethics [3]. He was the recipient of the 1963 National Medal of Science [4].

Norbert Wiener

Early Years and Education

Wiener was born on November 26, 1894 in Columbia, Missouri to Leo and Bertha Wiener. His father was a professor of Slavic languages at Harvard University and oversaw Norbert’s early education. Norbert did not receive formal schooling until he attended High School at age 9 in Ayers, Massachusetts. He graduated at age 11. Wiener acquired his first collegiate degree at Tufts University in 1909 (at the tender age of 14). His major was mathematics. He then moved on to a pursuit of zoological graduate studies at Harvard University. However, poor vision and coordination forced him to obtain PhD with a dissertation mathematical logic, which he received in 1912[5]

Professional Life

Wiener became a member of MIT's faculty at the age of 23. He became known as the stereotypical absent-minded professor. He once drove his car to Providence, Rhode Island for a lecture and, forgetting how he arrived, took the train home. The next day he reported the car as stolen. During the beginning of his MIT tenure, Wiener became interested in Brownian motion. [6].

Contributions to Information Theory

Wiener made several key contributions to information theory and in turn provided a philosophical and scientific grounding for information and computer ethics [7]. He made many speculations and assumptions about the nature of information in our universe, many of which are in play today. His key ideas included:

  • Objects and processes in our Universe consist of matter, energy and information
  • All animals are information-processing entities with behavior that is dependent upon such processing.
  • Humans have especially sophisticated information processing units in their central nervous system that distinguish them from other animals.
  • Information is physical and is subject to the laws of nature and science. All entities in the Universe consist of information encoded in matter-energy.

(All from [8])

Wiener's claims about the role of information in the Universe were expanded upon by later research and discoveries in physics. His belief that all entities consist of information encoded in matter-energy was expanded by Princeton's John Wheeler, who suggested that information is fundamental to the physics of the universe. [9]. Charles Seife furthered Weiner's claims that information is physical, writing, "Every molecule, atom, and elementary particle registers bits of information. Every interaction between those pieces of the universe processes that information by altering those bits," [10]. Furthermore, a student of Wheeler's Jacob Bekenstein discovered that the information encoded in matter-energy in every entity in the Universe appears to be digital and finite. Bekenstein discovered the Bekenstein bound, which is the upper restriction on the quantity of information that can be contained in a volume [11].


Contributions to Information and Computer ethics

Wiener is considered to be a key player in the development of cybernetics, particularly with regard to the social implications of new technology [12] He recognized that new computing technology would have the potential for good and evil stating, “Long before Nagasaki and the public awareness of the atomic bomb, it had occurred to me that we were here in the presence of another social potentiality of unheard-of importance for good and for evil.” [13] While worrying about potential technological harms such as unemployment caused by robots and computers making ethically disastrous decisions on behalf of humans his view of cybernetic machines was often optimistic rather than negative [14]Another significant contribution Wiener made to information ethics was the introduction of the concept of entropy. Wiener considered the fundamental natural evil to be entropy, “the loss of useful Shannon information and useful energy that occurs in virtually every physical change,” [15]. The concept of entropy is crucial in the work of information ethicist Luciano Floridi [16].

Wiener is credited as being the founder of information and computer ethics, although he did not use either term. He wrote two books, The Human Use of Human Beings (1950), and God and Golem Inc. (1963) that touched upon topics relevant in today’s information and computer ethics. These included the effects of computers upon security and unemployment, the responsibilities of computer professionals, computers impact of persons with disabilities, artificial intelligence, robot ethics, humans with machine augmented body parts and information networks with regard to globalization. [17]

After World War II Weiner became increasingly concerned with the ethical implications of technology and the militarization of science. In 1947 he wrote an article in the The Atlantic Monthly titled, “A Scientist Rebels” which implored scientists to consider the ethical consequences of their work [18]. He declined an invitation to become a part of the Manhattan Project and after World War II refused to accept government funding or work on military projects [19].

Wiener devoted attention to the ethics surrounding Non-Human agents. He predicted an "automatic age" that would be occupied by machines with, "brains of brass and thews of iron,”. He believed that decisions making machines would need to have a code of ethics programmed into them. However, he was concerned that machines that could learn on their own would eventually redefine their code of ethics and that the results could be decisions with huge ethical consequences. He was one of the first to believe that a machine could duplicate human intelligence theoretically, but that the scope and complexity of such a project would probably prevent it from being fully achieved [20].



References

  1. ↑ http://books.google.com/books/about/Dark_Hero_of_the_Information_Age.html?id=LpUtqB2jWlEC
  2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_ethics
  3. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 24.
  4. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Medal_of_Science_laureates
  5. ↑ http://www.tufts.edu/as/math/wiener.html
  6. ↑ http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/timeline-wiener-0119.html
  7. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 24.
  8. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 24.
  9. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Archibald_Wheeler
  10. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 27-28.
  11. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 28.
  12. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics#The_roots_of_cybernetic_theory
  13. ↑ http://southernct.edu/organizations/rccs/?p=2444
  14. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 29-30.
  15. ↑ Bynum, Terrell. Chapter 2 of The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (edited by Luciano Floridi). Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 25.
  16. ↑ http://www2.units.it/etica/1999_2/floridi/node8.html
  17. ↑ http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-computer/
  18. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener
  19. ↑ http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/thinkers/Wiener.html
  20. ↑ http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/activities/ieg/e-library/bynum.pdf
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