The Human Use of Human Beings

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Norbert Wiener: The Human Use of Human Beings (1950, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

English language

Published July 11, 1950 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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3 stars (1 review)

The Human Use of Human Beings is a book by Norbert Wiener, the founding thinker of cybernetics theory and an influential advocate of automation; it was first published in 1950 and revised in 1954. The text argues for the benefits of automation to society; it analyzes the meaning of productive communication and discusses ways for humans and machines to cooperate, with the potential to amplify human power and release people from the repetitive drudgery of manual labor, in favor of more creative pursuits in knowledge work and the arts. The risk that such changes might harm society (through dehumanization or subordination of our species) is explored, and suggestions are offered on how to avoid such risk.

3 editions

reviewed The human use of human beings by Norbert Wiener

"... machines which possess some very sinister possibilities ... the automatic chess-playing machine."

3 stars

One of those old-enough books systematically looking at information, technology, and society's structures and making predictions that ring somewhat true and prescient - challenges for intellectual property rights, commodification of knowledge, factory automation and its eventual application to white-collar labor too - and perhaps for being right, it seems like it's not saying much new to us today.