Fabricated Planet

[Daniel Bump]

More on Norbert Wiener. Steelhead (sitka at teleport.com) wrote:

>Two prefatory comments. Nothing in this rebuts my original assertion that
>Wiener's worldview, as expressed in The Nation article on nukes, and in his
>oft cited treatise on cybernetics, The Human Use of Human Beings, resembles
>in many ways the thinking patterns of the Nazi "scientists."

It is not my intention to defend the Nation article, which I have not
yet seen, but whose characterization as pro-nuclear I will accept. I
do think that this post and my previous one taken together amply
rebut the assertion that Wiener's worldview resembled that of Nazi
scientists.

There is much in Wiener's autobiography and much about the ethical
problems raised by his work in Cybernetics, which troubled him. Anyone
interested in knowing how he felt should read the Chapter of ``I am a
Mathematician,'' titled ``Moral Problems of a Scientist.''

Wiener was concerned by two issues: first, he did not want his work
applied to weapons research. Second, he did not want cybernetic
innovations to contribute to unemployment. I will give quotes to
illustrate both these concerns. 

    The automatic factory could not fail to raise new social
    problems concerning employment, and I was not sure that I 
    had the answers. A vast redistribution of labor at different
    levels would be created ....

    ... It seemed to me then quite possible that we could avoid
    a catastrophe of [massive unemployment], but if so, it would
    only be by much thinking, and not by waiting supinely until
    the catastrophe is upon us ....

    Accordingly, when a colleague wished for some information
    concerning my newer work I answered that I was not by any
    means certain that this work should be communicated to him,
    or indeed to the public at large. I felt all the more strongly
    about this inasmuch as he had requested the information for
    military purposes, and I did not know whether I should be
    a party to the use of my new ideas for controlled missles
    and the like.

                  *     *     *     *     *     *             

    ... I heard hard-boiled engineering administrators express
    views which sounded remarkably like the writings of William
    Morris. Above all, I had everyone backing me in cautioning
    that the new displacement of human beings from the repetitive
    labor of the factory must not be taken as a devaluation of
    the human being and a glorification of the gadget.
 
>He also shows a chilling indifference toward the homocidal purpose of the
>Manhattan Project.

I explained in my previous post that Wiener was interviewed by Harold
Urey for the Manhattan project, but rejected for it. He was glad:

    I was very certain of at least one thing: that I was most
    happy to have had no share in the responsibility for its
    development [i.e. that of the bomb] and its later use.

                  *     *     *     *     *     *             

    If we are to play with the edged tools of modern warfare,
    we are running not merely the danger of being cut by
    accident and carelessness but the practical certainty
    that other people will follow where we have gone and
    that we shall be exposed to the same perils to which we
    have exposed others....

                  *     *     *     *     *     *             

    ... The qualms of the scientists who knew the most about
    what the bomb could do ... were utterly ignored, and the
    suggestion to invite Japanese authorities to an experimental
    exhibition of the bomb ... was flatly rejected.

    Behind all this I sensed the desires of the gadgeteer to
    see the wheels go round .... I have seen such people and
    have a very good idea what makes them tick. It is unfortunate
    in more than one way that the war and the subsequent uneasy
    peace have brought them to the front.

>According to records from the former Atomic Energy Commission, Norbert
>Wiener had two contracts with the federal government to work on the
>development of nuclear power from 1953 through 1957. One of the contracts
>was with the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Richland, Washington.  Wiener's
>task was to help develop the fast-flux reactor at Hanford designed *solely*
>to generate plutonium for nuclear weapons.

If this is so, it is an important story which should be told. I'm not
about to defend the nuclear industry. If Norbert Wiener contributed
to its development, he made a mistake. He stated strongly and plainly
that he did not wish his work used in military applications, so the
point about developing the fast-flux reactor would seem to require
clarification. (During WWI he worked on control mechanisms for
anti-aircraft guns---not during WWII as I mistakenly posted
previously.)
                              Daniel Bump
                              http://math.stanford.edu/~bump/