God and Golem, Inc.; a Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion―A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion

The new and rapidly growing field of communication sciences owes as much to NorbertWiener as to any one man. He coined the word for it--cybernetics. In God & Golem, Inc., theauthor concerned himself with major points in cybernetics which are relevant to religious issues.Thefirst point he considers is that of the machine which learns. While learning is a property almostexclusively ascribed to the self-conscious living system, a computer now exists which not only canbe programmed to play a game of checkers, but one which can "learn" from its past experience andimprove on its own game. For a time, the machine was able to beat its inventor at checkers. "It didwin," writes the author, "and it did learn to win; and the method of its learning was no differentin principle from that of the human being who learns to play checkers.A second point concernsmachines which have the capacity to reproduce themselves. It is our commonly held belief that Godmade man in his own image. The propagation of the race may also be interpreted as a function inwhich one living being makes another in its own image. But the author demonstrates that man has mademachines which are "very well able to make other machines in their own image," and these machineimages are not merely pictorial representations but operative images. Can we then say: God is toGolem as man is to Machines? in Jewish legend, golem is an embryo Adam, shapeless and not fullycreated, hence a monster, an automation.The third point considered is that of the relation betweenman and machine. The concern here is ethical. "render unto man the things which are man's and untothe computer the things which are the computer's," warns the author. In this section of the book,Dr. Wiener considers systems involving elements of man and machine.The book is written for theintellectually alert public and does not involve any highly technical knowledge. It is based onlectures given at Yale, at the Societe Philosophique de Royaumont, and elsewhere.