IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 23

opinion

J. Mitchell
Johnson

Creating
"The Norbert Wiener
Media Project"

n the early part of
2009 I got a phone
call and was offered
a new filmmaking
assignment that related to the history of Soviet computing.
While doing research for the project, I stumbled across information
about a M.I.T. professor named Norbert Wiener. Fascinated, I bought
a copy of Flo Conway and Jim
Siegelman's amazing book, Dark
Hero of the Information Age [1].
Wiener's story touched me deeply
because his work connected the
dots on many questions I'd been
thinking about since my days as
a university student. His scientific theories, developed back in the
1930s and 1940s, open the door
to understanding modern communications theory and artificial
intelligence (AI). Many believe Wiener's achievements are on par with
Einstein, but for some reason his
rightful position in history had been
hidden from public view. Intrigued,
I continued (and still continue) to
do further research.
In the past few months, world
leaders of science and industry like
Stephen Hawkins [2], Bill Gates [3],
and Elon Mosk [2] have begun to
urgently issue statements warning

I

that humanity is quickly reaching
the threshold of extinction due to
the inevitable evolution of AI. They
repeated almost verbatim Wiener's
warnings without mentioning his
name. And while the future threat
of intelligent robots enslaving
humans that they warn of is a real
possibility, ironically what they did
not speak of were Wiener's prophecies that are already at hand [1,
prologue, p. X]. That is why I, along
with my filmmaking partners Robert Elfstrom and William Cran, have
decided to go forward with the creation of The Norbert Wiener Media
Project. The project will consist of
a feature length documentary film,
a biographical television documentary, and a comprehensive web site.
First I will speak of our pressing
task of creating a feature documentary film aimed at a wide audience
that both sounds the alarm about
an ecological disaster in the mak-

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2015.2461198
Date of publication: 16 September 2015

september 2015

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

ing that threatens humanity at its
core, and solves the mystery of why
Wiener and his achievements have
been sidelined. Wiener's story is
told against a backdrop of ominous
change. The working title for the
film is The System. We have borrowed this from the wry handle of
the 1960s counterculture that is
ripe for re-application as we struggle to kick-start a movement to
save ourselves.
People of goodwill can argue
about whether there is a supreme
cybernetic system at work, or what
the precise nature and name of
the phenomenon that threatens
our "humanness" might well be. Or
whether this looming crisis (which
is here already) should be characterized as an ecological issue? One
way or another, the basic truth is
that humanity is self-destructing. As
Mary Catherine Bateson puts it in her
recorded interview we made at last

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015
