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Chapter 21
Cybernetics and
Information Theory
21.1 NORBERT WIENER AND CYBERNETICS
Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) studied mathematics at Tus College from
1906 to 1909, zoology at Harvard University from 1909 to 1910, and phi-
losophy at Cornell University from 1910 to 1911. en, he returned to
Harvard University, while continuing his philosophy studies. Wiener had
been interested in the scientic method for a long time. He was a partici-
pant in a Harvard seminar run by Josia Royce (1855–1916) between 1911
and 1913. Harvard University awarded Wiener a Ph.D. in 1912, when he
was 18 years old, for his dissertation on mathematical logic [10].
In 19 ...