Book Review: God and Golem, Inc.
God & Golem, Inc: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion , published in 1964, has been penned down by Norbert Wiener. Wiener (1894-1964) happens to be the coiner of the term ‘cybernetics’ in its modern sense. Wiener is a well-regarded mathematician and has a vast number of technical papers to his credit. However God and Golem Inc, has very little to do with the subtleties of theoretical physics or mathematics, it concerns itself majorly with socially relevant issues of cybernetics that intersect with religion. The author here refrains himself from using any highly technical phrases to prove his points. Some of the ideas do remain rather vague, as a result of this approach. But it seems necessary as the book caters to a much wider audience this way. The three main issues, discussed throughout a number of short essays in the book, are: Machines which learn themselves Machines which have capacity to reproduce themselves The relation bet...