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

[Prashant Kumar]

Wikipedia, that is.

On 23 August 2012 03:58, Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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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