Editing Norbert Wiener (section)

===During and after World War II===
During [[World War II]], his work on the automatic aiming and firing of [[anti-aircraft gun]]s caused Wiener to investigate [[information theory]] independently of [[Claude Shannon]] and to invent the [[Wiener filter]]. (The now-standard practice of modeling an information source as a random process—in other words, as a variety of noise—is due to Wiener.) Initially his anti-aircraft work led him to write, with [[Arturo Rosenblueth]] and [[Julian Bigelow]], the 1943 article 'Behavior, Purpose and Teleology', which was published in [[Philosophy of Science]]. Subsequently his anti-aircraft work led him to formulate [[cybernetics]].<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|p=12}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Peter |last=Galison |date=Autumn 1994 |title=The ontology of the enemy: Norbert Wiener and the cybernetic vision |journal=[[Critical Inquiry (journal)|Critical Inquiry]] |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=228–266 |doi=10.1086/448747 |jstor=1343893 }}</ref> After the war, his fame helped MIT to recruit a research team in [[cognitive science]], composed of researchers in [[neuropsychology]] and the mathematics and [[biophysics]] of the nervous system, including [[Warren Sturgis McCulloch]] and [[Walter Pitts]]. These men later made pioneering contributions to [[computer science]] and [[artificial intelligence]]. Soon after the group was formed, Wiener suddenly ended all contact with its members, mystifying his colleagues. This emotionally traumatized Pitts, and led to his career decline. In their biography of Wiener, [[Flo Conway|Conway]] and [[Jim Siegelman|Siegelman]] suggest that Wiener's wife Margaret, who detested McCulloch's [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] lifestyle, engineered the breach.<ref>{{harvnb|Conway|Siegelman|2005|pp=223–7}}</ref>

[[Patrick D. Wall (scientist)|Patrick D. Wall]] speculated that after the publication of ''Cybernetics'', Wiener asked McCulloch for some physiological facts about the brain that he could then theorize. McCulloch told him "a mixture of what was known to be true and what McCulloch thought should be". Wiener then theorized it, went to a physiology congress, and was shot down. Wiener was convinced that McCulloch had set him up.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arbib |first=Michael A |date=2000 |title=Warren McCulloch's Search for the Logic of the Nervous System |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46496/pdf |journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=193–216 |doi=10.1353/pbm.2000.0001 |pmid=10804585 |issn=1529-8795}}</ref>

Wiener later helped develop the theories of cybernetics, [[robotics]], computer control, and [[automation]]. He discussed the modeling of neurons with [[John von Neumann]], and in a letter from November 1946 von Neumann presented his thoughts in advance of a meeting with Wiener.<ref>Letters to Norbert Wiener in ''John von Neumann: Selected Letters'', edited by Miklós Rédei, in ''History of Mathematics, Volume 27'', jointly published by the American Mathematical Society and the London Mathematical Society, 2005</ref>

Wiener always shared his theories and findings with other researchers, and credited the contributions of others. These included [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] researchers and their findings. Wiener's acquaintance with them caused him to be regarded with suspicion during the [[Cold War]]. He was a strong advocate of automation to improve the standard of living, and to end economic underdevelopment. His ideas became influential in [[India]], whose government he advised during the 1950s.

After the war, Wiener became increasingly concerned with what he believed was political interference with scientific research, and the militarization of science. His article "A Scientist Rebels" from the January 1947 issue of ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]''<ref>{{cite news |author=Wiener, Norbert |title=A Scientist Rebels |newspaper=Atlantic Monthly |page=46 |date=January 1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gsAAAAAMBAJ&q=%22have+received+from+you+a+note+in+which+you+state+that+you+are+engaged+in+a+project+concerning+controlled+missiles,+and+in+which+you+request+a+copy+of+a+paper+which+I+wrote+for+the+National+Defense+Research+Committee+during+the+war%22&pg=PA31 |access-date=2018-10-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026182625/https://books.google.com.au/books?id=6gsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=%22have+received+from+you+a+note+in+which+you+state+that+you+are+engaged+in+a+project+concerning+controlled+missiles,+and+in+which+you+request+a+copy+of+a+paper+which+I+wrote+for+the+National+Defense+Research+Committee+during+the+war%22&source=bl&ots=u6UsotYzLj&sig=QKFlDSmBepkwLL_8b1s8mNctBZQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTitHlrKPeAhWKtY8KHQBTAtEQ6AEwAHoECAEQAQ |archive-date=2018-10-26 |url-status=live }}</ref> urged scientists to consider the ethical implications of their work. After the war, he refused to accept any government funding or to work on military projects. The way Wiener's beliefs concerning nuclear weapons and the Cold War contrasted with those of von Neumann is the major theme of the book ''John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies|last=Heims|first=Steve Joshua|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|year=1980|isbn=978-0262081054|location=Cambridge}}</ref>

Wiener was a participant of the [[Macy conferences]].