God and Golem, inc

A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion

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Norbert Wiener: God and Golem, inc (1969, MIT Press)

99 pages

English language

Published Feb. 6, 1969 by MIT Press.

ISBN:
978-0-262-73011-2
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OCLC Number:
87854272

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The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to Norbert Wiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it—cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., the author concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.The first point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almost exclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only can be programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience and improve on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It did win," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no different in principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers.

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Subjects

  • Cybernetics.