Harmonies of Disorder : Norbert Wiener: A Mathematician-Philosopher of Our Time

319 Pages·2017·3.242 MB·English

by  Montagnini, Leone, Wiener, Norbert

Springer Biographies
Harmonies of
Disorder
Norbert Wiener:
A Mathematician-Philosopher
of Our Time
LEONE MONTAGNINI
Springer Biographies
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13617
Leone Montagnini
Harmonies of Disorder
Norbert Wiener: A Mathematician-
Philosopher of Our Time
123
Leone Montagnini
Ufficio Biblioscienze
Biblioteche di Roma
Rome
Italy
TranslationfromtheItalianlanguageedition:LearmoniedeldisordinebyLeoneMontagnini
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ISSN 2365-0613 ISSN 2365-0621 (electronic)
SpringerBiographies
ISBN978-3-319-50656-2 ISBN978-3-319-50657-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50657-9
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Let me here pay the greatest tribute to those
older scientists […] who look sympathetically
on these struggles of their younger
colleagues; and who, without considering
every adventurous ugly duckling to be a
young swan, are alert to foster power and
originality.
Norbert Wiener, Science and Society(61b,52)
Foreword
A Baedeker for our Challenging and Troubled Times
Norbert Wiener is an old mathematician, passed away more than fifty years ago
andpracticallyunknownoutsidethespecialists.Onecanaddthat,amongthefew
who have heard his name, suddenly the association is done with cybernetics, a
ghost discipline, we could say, presently almost disappeared from the horizon of
frontier investigations and circulating, instead, as a sort of characterizing prefix
of many different everyday words (cybersociety, cyberbully, cyberpunk, just
to provide a few examples). Moreover, in this book, he is presented as “a
mathematician-philosopher”, a strange qualification, indeed. Almost all that is
writteninthesubtitleseemstorefertoveryoldthings:precious,maybe,butwitha
flavorofdustyerudition.Anexceptionisprovidedbythelastwordsofthesubtitle
“ofourtime”.Whatcanbetheinterestfor“ourtime”ofsuchanoldmenshouldbe
what is indicated, although mysteriously, by the title which, instead, seem to point
out to some very contemporary notion. The one of disorder. In a mysterious way,
we wrote, since what is promised and prospected are the harmonies which the
disorder can produce. Well, Leone Montagnini was able to introduce all the
complexity of the themes he will develop in these pages just through title and
subtitle.
Leonehasbeenabletoaffordandconcludeasortofimpossiblemission,theone
of presenting in its entirety and complexity this unusual figure of scientist, inte-
grating the various different aspects of his life and his work. Integration is really
attained here at a level never obtained before. A book, as is written in the intro-
duction, that is not “another biography” but “an essay about his thought”. One
could ask where is the novelty. Good reconstructions of the scientific life of any
scholarare—always—alsoessaysonthought.Yes,ofcourse,butinWiener’scase
there is one additional problem. He was really many things at the same time.
Certainly a great mathematician, no doubt about that. A towering figure as is
stressed in a lot of papers that can be found in the numerous volumes that the
AmericanMathematicalSocietyhaspublishedforcelebratinghim.Buthewasalso
vii
viii Foreword
many other things; his Ph.D. in philosophy—after the desire of studying medicine
and intertwined interests in biology and mathematics—was not something acci-
dental. He had studied with great philosophers of his time, not only Bertrand
Russell, as is carefully documented here. He had planned to do philosophy when
“the door was slammed in his face” by the Philosophy Department of Harvard
University(§2.6below).Wecouldalsosuspect—inlightofallhisvariousinterests
—thathewas,infact,undecidedabouthisfutureand“Harvard’sdooreffect”only
helped him to find his way. Writing “an essay on his thought” in Wiener’s case
means, then, doing a careful study of the modalities according to which different
aspects of his intellectual life interacted. One could say that his various interests
gave rise to results of different value, and due to his total engagement in mathe-
matics starting around 1920, the most precious gems are to be found here. This is
true,butwhatisatstakehereiswhetherhiswayofdoingmathematicsisseparable
from the other loci of his mind. And beware: how to classify his invention of
cybernetics? There is a lot of (his) mathematics here but also many other things.
Andwhatyouhavenowinyourhandsshowsalsowhyhedecidedtowritethebook
Cybernetics, where and when to publish it. The different aspects of his personality
were really always strongly interacting.Also ethical questions arean essential part
ofthewayinwhichscientificresultsarefound,presentedandpublished.Thereader
is invited to follow carefully Montagnini when he describes Wiener’s doubts
and dilemmas, his “acute attack of conscience”, fearing the possibility that his
“inventions go to the wrong hands” (§ 8.7, below).
And more. How to classify his work with neurophysiologists? And his lucid
analysisoftheproblems posed by thenew technological advances?Areal fan,we
could say, of technological developments (besides being one of the few great
characters in the new play of information revolution), whose second book is a
warningjustfromthetitle(Thehumanuseofhumanbeings:thereadershouldhave
noticedthecareinchoosingwordsandadjectives).Afewlinesabove,weusedthe
word integration for describing the method used by Leone for presenting the dif-
ferent aspects. We must take the word seriously. An occasional reader of some of
Wienercontributionscouldhavesimplyconcludedthathewasapersonwithmany
intellectual interests as well as a superficial storytelling of his activities could
resemble Pirandello’s novel One, No One and One Hundred Thousand or
Kurosawa’s movie “Rashomon”. Both are far from providing a good picture of
Wiener’s thought: in him the different facets always interact. The results in one of
his activities must be seen—in order to fully appreciate their novelty—in light of
whathadhappenedorwashappeningintheotherones.Thatmeansthateachpoint
of view cannot be fully understood in isolation. Interdisciplinarity one would
suggestasakeyword,althoughWienerhardlyused,ifever,thisterm.Yes,butonly
if we interpret the term in a correct way. He was all his avatars. We do not
understand Wiener if we look at him as (only) a scholar doing interdisciplinary
work. He, as a person, was “interdisciplinary”—if we can use this image, a very
odd one, indeed. Both his work and his life have been guided by problems and
questions, not by the compliance to formal rules or social duties. Problems are the
very essence of our quest, as humans as well as scientists. Problems, however, do
Foreword ix
not obey disciplinary separations. These are useful for affording the former with
refined and stronger tools, but should at all costs not be elevated at the status of
absolutes.
ThisistrueforWienernotonlyforwhatwecouldcall“nearby”disciplines,but
for everything. If an ethical question was crucial, this interacted with the technical
problems at which he was working and, in case of a contrast between them, he
wouldhavechangedattitude,workingatthetechnicalproblemsinadifferentway.
Neither abandon them nor renounce to his ethical commitments. He really is “one
and many”, a heavy burden he carried on, along all his life, apparently with ease
and the lighthearted attitude of a child. But who knows the price that, as a human
being, he payed for this burden that was the key of his originality.
Let’s go back to the title. Although, at a first reading, it seems to point to
technical(mathematical)findingsbyWiener,itcanbereadalsoasaresuméofthe
crucial role that information technologies were (and are) coming to play in our
worldsincetheyappearmuchmore“disordered”thanthetraditionalonestowhich
we were (and are) accustomed. From a social point of view this means that they
must be understood and harnessed (and understood in order to be correctly har-
nessed). We must find their “harmonies”. Glimpsing the complexity of Wiener’s
thought can help us in understanding new questions of our present society. He
could appear also as a prophet. This is not satisfactory for a scientist even if we
interpret the word “prophet” in the plain sense of a person able “to see things that
others are unable to see”. We should understand why he was able to do this. The
answer may simply consist in the fact that he assumed “the right point of obser-
vation”.Fortheunderstandingofoursocietyaswell,then,heisaveryneededman.
His message, till now, has not been known as it deserves, perhaps for the simple
reason that his thought has not been seen in a unitary way. Montagnini has
accomplished the superb goal of showing the intricacy of the connections among
hislifeand(all)histhought(s),suggestingthatforcapturinghismessagenotonlyin
its entirety, but in his integrity, we must consider the complexity of the ways in
which Wiener was able to do what he did.
How Leone was able to succeed in this task may appear a mystery. Easily
explainable, indeed, by reading the book. It is simply the strategy—of Wienerian
nature—ofcrossingthedisciplinaryfrontiersandthecapacity—afterthecrossing—
toacquireallandonlythetoolsnecessaryformovinginthenewterritories.Thereis
noneedofbeingauniversalsavantoranotherWiener(bothimpossibletasks).This
is Montagnini’s lesson. What is required—and what he did—is to understand the
kernel of his implicit epistemology, sharing with Wiener himself the capability of
lookingforlinksamongdistantthings.What’satstakehere,infact,isnoterudition
but the ability of picking up fragments in which the complexity of his thought, of
his work and his life opens out in a transparent way, allowing us to see the
back-office of his mind.
When starting a journey, some guide is needed. This is true both in the case in
whichonesimplyplanstovisitanewCountryandinthecase(nowadays,veryrare,
forwhatregardsgeographicalplacesinourEarth)inwhichonedarestoventurein
still unexplored territories. In the first case what is needed is only a Baedeker, as
x Foreword
one would have said a few decades ago and, when in Italy, the famous “Guide
rosse” of Italian Touring Club would be a must. In the case of an unexplored
territory no such useful help is available, one cannot but use the few elements
reported by the first explorers, checking the most reliable.
The present book is useful for both types of journeys. It is a Baedeker for
knowing and understanding Wiener, his thought in all the intricacy of the con-
nectionsandinteractionsofitsdifferentlayers.Butplayingthisroleitisusefulalso
for exploring the still unknown territory of a society moulded and shaped by
information technology. Our “mathematician-philosopher” still remains one of the
most reliable and acute interpreter of our age, notwithstanding the fact that half
century has elapsed from his death. So, we must thank Leone Montagnini who,
providing a detailed guide to Wiener’s thought in all his intricacy and complexity,
has given us the possibility of using his suggestions and indications for moving in
the still uncharted territory of information society.
Palermo, Italy Settimo Termini