IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2017 - 42

to refer to what I call the Wiener
anecdotes. These are events that
students and colleagues at M.I.T.
noticed and collected about Wiener.
There were many anecdotes. I have
about 30, though several are just dif-
ferent versions of the same happen-
ing. I will relate just a few to give you
some idea of them and Wiener.
Quoting Marshall Reber, as Prof.
Wiener's last graduate student and
Teaching Assistant, I can relate that
not only did he avidly collect the lat-
est "absent minded" Wiener anecdote
to report to his students in class but
also which one was his favorite just
before his unfortunate passing:
The Wiener family, consisting
of Norbert, his wife and two
young daughters, moved from
their house in Belmont to a
new house a few blocks away.
Naturally Norbert, upon going
home from M.I.T. the first day
after the move, forgetfully
returned to the old homestead
to find it empty. While trying to
remember where the new
house was located he spied a
small girl playing nearby on the
sidewalk and decided to inquire
if she possibly knew to where
the Wieners had moved. Patient-
ly the little girl took his hand
and replied "Sure Daddy, just
follow me!"
Edward C. Barile told me that a pro-
fessor of his at Northeastern Uni-
versity was a student of Professor
Wiener and related this anecdote to
his class in 1971:
Professor Wiener had just
written down a complicated
expression that no one in the
class really could follow. So one
student raised his hand and
said, "Professor, I don't under-
stand how you got that expres-
sion. Could you do it again?"

42

Wiener thought for a mo-
ment and proceeded to write
the same expression again on
the black board.
The student said "I am sorry
but I still don't understand".
So Professor Wiener thought
some more and after a little
while wrote the same expres-
sion again.
The student said "My apolo-
gies sir, but I still don't see it."
Wiener turned to him and
said: "Well I don't know how I
can help you. I just derived it
3 different ways for you".

asked the student to show
him in which direction he had
been going, because, as he
explained, if he had been
walking East he had not eaten
lunch and if he had been walk-
ing West he had already eaten.
He was aware of these stories or at
least of some. I even believed that he
deliberately created or fed some of
them but my wife differed with me.
She was the effective operational head
of the M.I.T. Press under Dean Facett,
and worked with [Wiener] on some of
his books. He would come into her
office and ask her to pick a page in a
book. He would say, "pick a page, pick
any page." He would then recite what
was on the page, word by word, cor-
rectly. He had a photographic mem-
ory. In any case, my wife believed he
acted naturally for Norbert Wiener, not
putting it on. She thought that he was
actually childlike. In any case, these
anecdotes were and are used today to
describe Norbert but lovingly.
Sometimes such remarks about
someone are meant to be critical
and malicious. But not in this case.
[Norbert Wiener] was loved as well
as respected at M.I.T. These anec-
dotes gave further credence to the
fact that he was a genius, had a pho-
tographic memory, liked to talk with
people socially, and was absent-
minded or so focused that he wasn't
always aware of his surroundings.
One day, a sense of gloom spread
over the M.I.T. campus. It was just
learned that Russia had successfully
tested an HBomb. Norbert was oppos-
ed to nuclear weapons by anyone.
He had been extremely disturbed by
the deaths and destruction meted
out in the 2  Japanese cities ending
World War II, and these events helped
to shape his social conscience.
During the war, many universi-
ties engaged in projects of a military
nature, funded by the Government.
In addition, after World War II, a

And Eduando Elizondo told me the
following anecdote which occurred
in the years 1951-1955 while he was
an undergraduate at M.I.T.:
Professor Wiener used to have
lunch at Walker Memorial, the
main dining hall in East Cam-
pus. Frequently he used to join
the table where a number of
Latin American students were
gathered, probably to practice
his Spanish language skills. His
conversations usually dealt
with the music, dance, and cul-
ture of South America. Among
the facts that he related (which
I was not aware of) was that in
Paraguay the dominant lan-
guage is Quechuan (derived
from the ancestral Inca lan-
guage) and not Spanish.
Prof. Wiener used to walk
to and from Walker memorial
along the "endless corridors"
of the M.I.T. buildings, always
holding a finger lightly touch-
ing the wall shoulder high as
he walked.
On one such walk he ran
across one of the Latin Ameri-
can students and he stopped
to ask some details about the
Pachanga dance. When he was
finished he hesitated and then
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