NP (but everything connects): N Weiner, Vonnegut & PKDick

[Prashant Kumar]

Haven't got my copy at hand, but do recall something in American Prometheus
also to that effect.

P.

On 23 August 2012 03:25, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>wrote:

>
> http://ensemble.va.com.au/**Treister/HEXEN2/TAROT_COL/**Chariot.html<http://ensemble.va.com.au/Treister/HEXEN2/TAROT_COL/Chariot.html>
>
> While Treister, on her Tarot card, says that Wiener "declined to join
> Manhattan Project", the Wikipedia article has it - with reference to p. 127
> of the biography by Conway & Spiegelman - that he was "not invited to
> participate in the Manhattan Project". A crucial difference. Anyone?
>
>
>
> On 22.08.2012 12:48, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>  That's N. Wiener, thanks Jochen. from Wikipedia:
>> After the war, Wiener became increasingly concerned with what he believed
>> was political interference with scientific research, and the militarization
>> of science. His article "A Scientist Rebels" for the January 1947 issue of
>> The Atlantic Monthly[9] urged scientists to consider the ethical
>> implications of their work. After the war, he refused to accept any
>> government funding or to work on military projects. The way Wiener's
>> beliefs concerning nuclear weapons and the Cold War contrasted with that of
>> John von Neumann is the major theme of the book John Von Neumann and
>> Norbert Wiener Heims (1980).[10][citation needed]
>>   I remember not wanting to read him when I was younger and his books
>> were popular because I thought he was more on the side of computers, so to
>> speak.
>> Pynchon knew better.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
>> To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>> Cc:
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 12:11 AM
>> Subject: Re: NP (but everything connects): N Weiner, Vonnegut & PKDick
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**Norbert_Wiener<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener>
>>
>> 2012/8/22 Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>:
>>
>>> Seems Kurt V. had, personally sent by his publisher, a copy of his first
>>> novel Player
>>> Piano go to N. Weiner. Who read it and wrote angrily about the young
>>> author to his
>>> editor at Scribner's that he recognized his colleague John Von Neumann
>>> in the character named
>>> von Neumann (!) he [author] 'cannot with impunity play fast & loose with
>>> the names of living people."
>>> He went on to say that the 'new cult' of science fiction was refusing to
>>> confront, as he
>>> was, the misuse of computers.....instead "pointless fairy tales about
>>> ..tomorrow"...
>>>
>>> Taken aback, KV later told his wife that Weiner knew as much about
>>> satire as he [KV]
>>> did about cybernetics.
>>>
>>> PKDick liked the novel--"Nobody knew who Vonnegut was"--because it was
>>> not the usual vision of a
>>> future in which humankind would be the master of machines.
>>>
>>>                                          -- from Shields' biography
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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