Norbert Wiener编辑历史

# Norbert Wiener

**Norbert Wiener** (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher, best known as the founder of cybernetics—the interdisciplinary study of control and communication in animals and machines. His work laid the groundwork for fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and systems theory. Wiener made significant contributions to mathematics, including stochastic processes (Wiener process), harmonic analysis, and signal processing. He was also a prolific author, writing both technical works and popular books on science and society.

## 1 Biography

### 1.1 Early life and education

Norbert Wiener was born in Columbia, Missouri, to Leo Wiener, a professor of Slavic languages at Harvard University, and Bertha Kahn. A child prodigy, he was taught at home by his father and entered Tufts College at age 11, graduating in 1909 with a degree in mathematics. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1913 at age 18, writing a dissertation on mathematical logic. Postdoctoral studies took him to Cambridge University (under Bertrand Russell) and the University of Göttingen (under David Hilbert).

### 1.2 Academic career at MIT

In 1919, Wiener joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he remained for his entire career. He initially worked in mathematics and engineering, developing his ideas on stochastic processes and harmonic analysis. During World War II, he worked on fire-control systems, which sparked his interest in feedback and control—the seeds of cybernetics. He became a full professor in 1932 and was later named Institute Professor, MIT’s highest academic rank.

### 1.3 Later years and death

After the war, Wiener’s public profile grew with the publication of *Cybernetics* (1948). He traveled widely, lecturing on the social implications of automation. In his later years, he became more critical of the military applications of his work. Wiener died of a heart attack on March 18,