Norbert Wiener Quotes

United States, Mathematician
November 26, 1894 – March, 18, 1964.

Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems.

Also known as Philosopher

It is possible to believe in progress as a fact without believing in progress as an ethical principle; but in the catechism of many Americans, the one goes with the other.

Norbert Wiener
Progress imposes not only new possibilities for the future but new restrictions.

Norbert Wiener

The simple faith in progress is not a conviction belonging to strength, but one belonging to acquiescence and hence to weakness.

Norbert Wiener
The more we get out of the world the less we leave, and in the long run we shall have to pay our debts at a time that may be very inconvenient for our own survival.

Norbert Wiener
- World
- Survival
- Debts
Any use of a human being in which less is demanded of him and less is attributed to him than his full status is a degradation and a waste.

Norbert Wiener
- Human
- Status
- Degradation
The science of control and communication in the animal and the machine

Norbert Wiener
In all important respects, the man who has nothing but his physical power to sell has nothing to sell which it is worth anyone's money to buy

Norbert Wiener
- Power
- Sell
- Respects
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead.

Norbert Wiener

To live effectively is to live with adequate information.

Norbert Wiener
The nervous system and the automatic machine are fundamentally alike in that they are devices, which make decisions on the basis of decisions they made in the past.

Norbert Wiener
- Past
- Decisions
- Machine