Norbert Wiener - the founder of cybernetics
Good day, dear habrasoobschestvo. I will try to tell about the outstanding person, the scientist - one of the founders of cybernetics - the science of control in the animal and the machine. Research conducted by this person and his scientific colleagues - formed the basis of modern it technologies. After all, they, including, made a scientifically-based decision to use the binary system of calculus in the development of digital machines.
The merit of Norbert Wiener is that he brought together many of the existing works on the general theory of control, identified and gave the name to a new scientific field - cybernetics. In the 40s, he and Mexican Professor Rosenbluet formulated the following requirements for computing machines (the science of cybernetics at that time was only at its inception)
These recommendations, along with suggestions for their practical use, were sent to Dr. Vanover Bush (the then leading developer of analog machines for the US military) for possible use in the event of war. As we see, these recommendations are used now, in the process of developing computing devices. Yes, the speed of the electronic lamp is now not comfortable with anyone, but the gradual abandonment of the use of mechanical parts, even in hard drives, is still observed today. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of Norbert Wiener and his colleagues to it. Already in the 40s of the last century, these people were able not only to conduct theoretical studies of the general theory of management, but also to obtain interesting practical results:
This is just a small list of what many founding fathers of cybernetics realized in practice in the distant 40s. To some extent, they succeeded because the war was not in the United States. In the midst of the war of 1943-1944, they assemble a powerful group that includes Wiener, Neumann, Turing, Mac-Kaloh, Rosenbluet, Kenon, Erickson (the very one who came up with Ericksonian hypnosis) and many others ...
Norbert Wiener was also one of the first scientists of that time who began to research and agitate to the study of the so-called adjacent areas. He believed that a mathematician should not be able to put a physical or physiological experiment, but he should be able to understand this experiment and draw the necessary practical useful conclusions for mathematics from the results of this experiment. The above applies to other sciences. Investigating muscle conduction in synapses - he conducted experiments on cats in Mexico, together with Professor of Medicine Rosenbluth.
One of the problems that occupied the scientist was the problem of the perception of gestalt - or the problem of the formation of generalizations in perception. In his characteristic scientific approach, he initially did not make significant differences in the study of this problem between machines and animals. From his point of view, the fundamental difference between the human control system (nervous system) and the machine control system is that our brain is technically more perfect, contains more elements and so on ... But without a scientific study of the problem of gestalt, it would be impossible to organize work even primitive text recognizer.
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It is also worth noting that some of his scientific researches are connected with the work of the Soviet scientist Kolmogorov “Interpolation and extrapolation of stationary random sequences” about which he, Wiener, clearly indicates in his work “Cybernetics”. So in the USSR they made considerable efforts to form a new science. However, the war prevented the Soviet scientists from doing the necessary systematizing work.
The questions that worried Norbert Wiener can be obtained from the title of his book Cybernetics:
The scientist also researched learning and self-replicating machines, brain waves, and self-organizing systems. He predicted the theoretical possibility of cloning living beings, despite the fact that the genetic code of a single animal had not yet been deciphered.
Already in the 40s, Wiener claimed that the machine is smarter than its creator. In the study of behavior, he paid special attention to the concept of focus. Rosenbluth Wiener and Bigelow’s classification of behavior:
Active - Inactive (Passive)
Active is divided into: Purposeful - Unfocused
Purposeful: With feedback - Without feedback
With feedback: Predictive - Unpredictable
Predicting: First second second, etc. orders of prediction ...
This excerpt from the article on behavior, which, among others, formed the basis of Cybernetics.
However, he was not inclined to unreasonable use of machines, in one of the last interviews that he had been taken shortly before his death, he was asked the question: Is it possible to program a machine for nuclear warfare?
He replied: “Of course, it is impossible because no one on the planet has experience in waging such a war, so he cannot put in his initial knowledge of the goals to be achieved. And programming war games based on artificial success criteria can end badly. The car can be taught to achieve its goals - but our task is to decide for ourselves what we want, and no car of the future will solve it instead of us. ”
As you can see, the founder of cybernetics does not relieve responsibility from a person at all, because machines are not able to declare war - if we do not program them for this.
If the article arouses interest, I will continue a more detailed presentation of the ideas of cybernetics.
The merit of Norbert Wiener is that he brought together many of the existing works on the general theory of control, identified and gave the name to a new scientific field - cybernetics. In the 40s, he and Mexican Professor Rosenbluet formulated the following requirements for computing machines (the science of cybernetics at that time was only at its inception)
- Central summing and multiplying devices must be digital.
- These devices, which are essentially switches, should consist of electronic tubes, and not of gears or electromechanical relays. This is necessary to ensure sufficient speed.
- In accordance with the principles adopted for a number of existing machines of Bellow telephone laboratories, a more economical binary rather than decimal number system should be used.
- The sequence of actions should be planned by the machine itself so that the person would not interfere in the process of solving the problem from the moment the initial data were entered until the final results were removed. All logical operations necessary for this must be performed by the machine itself.
- The machine must contain a device for storing data. This device must write them down quickly, store them safely before erasing, read them quickly, erase them quickly, and immediately prepare for storing new material.
These recommendations, along with suggestions for their practical use, were sent to Dr. Vanover Bush (the then leading developer of analog machines for the US military) for possible use in the event of war. As we see, these recommendations are used now, in the process of developing computing devices. Yes, the speed of the electronic lamp is now not comfortable with anyone, but the gradual abandonment of the use of mechanical parts, even in hard drives, is still observed today. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of Norbert Wiener and his colleagues to it. Already in the 40s of the last century, these people were able not only to conduct theoretical studies of the general theory of management, but also to obtain interesting practical results:
- Predictive control system of artillery fire.
- A device that allows reading books to the blind.
- A machine for playing checkers that allows you to beat your programmer after 20-30 hours of playing with him.
- Constructing prosthetic hands that allow people with disabilities to receive feedback and perform such simple actions as raising a glass of water.
This is just a small list of what many founding fathers of cybernetics realized in practice in the distant 40s. To some extent, they succeeded because the war was not in the United States. In the midst of the war of 1943-1944, they assemble a powerful group that includes Wiener, Neumann, Turing, Mac-Kaloh, Rosenbluet, Kenon, Erickson (the very one who came up with Ericksonian hypnosis) and many others ...
Norbert Wiener was also one of the first scientists of that time who began to research and agitate to the study of the so-called adjacent areas. He believed that a mathematician should not be able to put a physical or physiological experiment, but he should be able to understand this experiment and draw the necessary practical useful conclusions for mathematics from the results of this experiment. The above applies to other sciences. Investigating muscle conduction in synapses - he conducted experiments on cats in Mexico, together with Professor of Medicine Rosenbluth.
One of the problems that occupied the scientist was the problem of the perception of gestalt - or the problem of the formation of generalizations in perception. In his characteristic scientific approach, he initially did not make significant differences in the study of this problem between machines and animals. From his point of view, the fundamental difference between the human control system (nervous system) and the machine control system is that our brain is technically more perfect, contains more elements and so on ... But without a scientific study of the problem of gestalt, it would be impossible to organize work even primitive text recognizer.
')
It is also worth noting that some of his scientific researches are connected with the work of the Soviet scientist Kolmogorov “Interpolation and extrapolation of stationary random sequences” about which he, Wiener, clearly indicates in his work “Cybernetics”. So in the USSR they made considerable efforts to form a new science. However, the war prevented the Soviet scientists from doing the necessary systematizing work.
The questions that worried Norbert Wiener can be obtained from the title of his book Cybernetics:
- Newton and Bergson time
- Groups and statistical mechanics
- Time series, information and communication
- Feedback and vibrations.
- Computing Machines and the Nervous System
- Gestalt and Universal
- Cybernetics and psychopathology
- Information language and society.
The scientist also researched learning and self-replicating machines, brain waves, and self-organizing systems. He predicted the theoretical possibility of cloning living beings, despite the fact that the genetic code of a single animal had not yet been deciphered.
Already in the 40s, Wiener claimed that the machine is smarter than its creator. In the study of behavior, he paid special attention to the concept of focus. Rosenbluth Wiener and Bigelow’s classification of behavior:
Active - Inactive (Passive)
Active is divided into: Purposeful - Unfocused
Purposeful: With feedback - Without feedback
With feedback: Predictive - Unpredictable
Predicting: First second second, etc. orders of prediction ...
This excerpt from the article on behavior, which, among others, formed the basis of Cybernetics.
However, he was not inclined to unreasonable use of machines, in one of the last interviews that he had been taken shortly before his death, he was asked the question: Is it possible to program a machine for nuclear warfare?
He replied: “Of course, it is impossible because no one on the planet has experience in waging such a war, so he cannot put in his initial knowledge of the goals to be achieved. And programming war games based on artificial success criteria can end badly. The car can be taught to achieve its goals - but our task is to decide for ourselves what we want, and no car of the future will solve it instead of us. ”
As you can see, the founder of cybernetics does not relieve responsibility from a person at all, because machines are not able to declare war - if we do not program them for this.
If the article arouses interest, I will continue a more detailed presentation of the ideas of cybernetics.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/86390/
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