Norbert Wiener-A Life in Cybernetics: Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth and I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy (The MIT Press)

Norbert Wiener's Celebrated Autobiography, Available For The First Time In One Volume. Norbert Wiener -- A Life In Cybernetics Combines For The First Time The Two Volumes Of Norbert Wiener's Celebrated Autobiography. Published At The Height Of Public Enthusiasm For Cybernetics -- When It Was Taken Up By Scientists, Engineers, Science Fiction Writers, Artists, And Musicians -- Ex-prodigy (1953) And I Am A Mathematician (1956) Received Attention From Both Scholarly And Mainstream Publications, Garnering Reviews And Publicity In Outlets That Ranged From The New York Times And New York Post To The Virginia Quarterly Review. Norbert Wiener Was A Mathematician With Extraordinarily Broad Interests. The Son Of A Harvard Professor Of Slavic Languages, Wiener Was Reading Dante And Darwin At Seven, Graduated From Tufts At Fourteen, And Received A Phd From Harvard At Eighteen. He Joined Mit's Department Of Mathematics In 1919, Where He Remained Until His Death In 1964 At Sixty-nine. In Ex-prodigy, Wiener Offers An Emotionally Raw Account Of Being Raised As A Child Prodigy By An Overbearing Father. In I Am A Mathematician, Wiener Describes His Research At Mit And How He Established The Foundations For The Multidisciplinary Field Of Cybernetics And The Theory Of Feedback Systems. This Volume Makes Available The Essence Of Wiener's Life And Thought To A New Generation Of Readers. Contents Foreword Notes Bibliography I Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth Dedication Foreword to Ex-Prodigy: My Childhood and Youth Introduction 1 A Russian Irishman in Kansas City 2 The Proper Missourians 3 First Remembered Patterns 4 Cambridge to Cambridge, via New York and Vienna 5 In the Sweat of My Brow Note 6 Diversions of a Wunderkind 7 A Child among Adolescents 8 College Man in Short Trousers 9 Neither Child nor Youth Notes 10 The Square Peg 11 Disinherited 12 Problems and Confusions Note 13 A Philosopher Despite Himself Note 14 Emancipation 15 A Traveling Scholar in Wartime 16 Trial Run: Teaching at Harvard and the University of Maine 17 Monkey Wrench, Paste Pot, and the Slide Rule War 18 The Return to Mathematics 19 Epilogue II I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy Dedication Preface to I Am a Mathematician: The Later Life of a Prodigy 20 My Start as a Mathematician 21 The International Mathematical Congress of 1920 at Strasbourg 22 1920–1925. Years of Consolidation Note 23 The Period of My Travels Abroad—Max Born and Quantum Theory Notes 24 To Europe as a Guggenheim Fellow with My Bride 25 1927–1931. Years of Growth and Progress 26 An Unofficial Cambridge Don 27 Back Home 28 Voices Prophesying War 29 China and Around the World 30 The Days before the War 31 The War Years 32 Mexico 33 Moral Problems of a Scientist. The Atomic Bomb 1942– 34 Nancy, Cybernetics, Paris, and After 35 India 36 Epilogue Index "Norbert Wiener--A Life in Cybernetics combines for the first time the two volumes of Norbert Wiener's celebrated autobiography. Published at the height of public enthusiasm for cybernetics--when it was taken up by scientists, engineers, science fiction writers, artists, and musicians--Ex-Prodigy (1953) and I Am a Mathematician (1956) received attention from both scholarly and mainstream publications, garnering reviews and publicity in outlets that ranged from the New York Times and New York Post to the Virginia Quarterly Review. Norbert Wiener was a mathematician with extraordinarily broad interests. The son of a Harvard professor of Slavic languages, Wiener was reading Dante and Darwin at seven, graduated from Tufts at fourteen, and received a PhD from Harvard at eighteen. He joined MIT's Department of Mathematics in 1919, where he remained until his death in 1964 at sixty-nine. In Ex-Prodigy, Wiener offers an emotionally raw account of being raised as a child prodigy by an overbearing father. In I Am a Mathematician, Wiener describes his research at MIT and how he established the foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics and the theory of feedback systems. This volume makes available the essence of Wiener's life and thought to a new generation of readers."-- Provided by publisher