Wiener's “Genius Project”

Abstract

Norbert Wiener, the inventor of cybernetics, was sidelined by the U.S. government as a powerful critic of how that science was being used. His deep concerns about how the social sciences, which he considered to be a part of cybernetics, were deployed to assault the Cold War population were by-and-Iarge silenced. His worries about the massive disruptions ahead, driven by how automation would displace workers, were based on his personal observation that very few were willing to think through the social impact of technology. As a result, he organized what he called the "Genius Project" to provide historic guidance to those who might return to these concerns in some future renaissance.