Week 5

The Human Use of Human Beings

Original Text

Download Wiener (1950)

1. Introduction to the Work and Its Context

• Author and Background:
  Norbert Wiener, a pioneer in cybernetics, wrote this book to apply the principles of communication theory and feedback control to human society.
• Central Theme:
  The work explores language as an encoded system—not only a vehicle for human thought and social interaction but also as a mechanism common to animals and machines.

2. Language as an Encoded Communication System

• Universal Nature of Codes:
  Language is viewed as a system of encoded and decoded messages. This principle extends beyond human speech to animal signals and machine operations.

• Encoding/Decoding and Information Loss:
  Each transmission—from the initial message, through intermediaries, to its final interpretation—is subject to translation that may dissipate information (analogous to the second law of thermodynamics).

• Mathematical Measure of Information:
  If a message has probability ( p ), its maximum information content is given by ( -p ). However, the information effectively received depends on the quality of the terminal (or decoding) system.

3. Distinctive Characteristics of Human Language

• Flexibility and Arbitrariness versus Animal Codes:
  • Animal Communication: Fixed, species-specific signals that primarily convey immediate emotional states or simple messages.
  • Human Language: Uses arbitrary symbols capable of representing abstract ideas. This allows for cultural evolution and extensive historical accumulation.
• Examples from Nature:
  While some birds (like parrots and crows) can mimic human sounds, their replication lacks the semantic structure and dynamic usage found in genuine human language.

4. The Multilevel Structure of Human Language

• Phonetic Level:
  • Involves the reception and production of sounds, subject to biological constraints (e.g., the ear’s cutoff frequency).
  • The process of encoding sound waves (or electrical signal equivalents) forms the first step in language.
• Semantic Level:
  • Concerns the extraction of meaning from sounds.
  • Relies on learned associations, memory, and abstraction, enabling the listener to relate words or sounds to ideas.
  • Each “translation” into meaning is an opportunity for information loss.
• Behavioral Level:
  • Translates internal semantic representations into observable actions—including spoken language and other social behaviors.
  • This level shows how internal thought becomes public discourse or behavior.

5. Information Theory Applied to Communication

• Transmission Loss:
  Similar to energy lost in physical processes, every stage in transmitting a message (from the sender through mediating systems to the receiver) tends to reduce the original information content.

• Systems Analogy (e.g., Power Stations):
  Wiener illustrates these ideas with technical examples: automatic power stations must carefully control the translation of signals to physical actions (like synchronizing generators), where each conversion stage risks further information loss.

6. Language Acquisition and Its Uniquely Human Impulse

• Innate Predisposition and Critical Periods:
  Humans are born with a powerful but undeveloped drive to acquire language.
  • There is a critical developmental window during which exposure to language enables children to naturally learn and innovate linguistic codes.
• Contrast with Other Primates:
  • Despite high intelligence, chimpanzees and other close relatives do not develop true language. They lack the built-in mechanism for translating sounds into complex, semantically structured communication.
  • The failure of chimpanzees to “talk” is not due to a lack of intelligence but because they lack the unique, innate impulse to develop abstract linguistic constructs.

7. Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Language Evolution

• Evolution of Philological Theories:
  • Early ideas (such as the notion of a pure first language from Paradise or the Tower of Babel) are recast under a modern, cybernetic framework.
  • Language is not a relic of a pure, static past but a dynamic, evolving system shaped by human interactions and social forces.
• Statistical and Optimality Considerations:
  • Studies like Mandelbrot’s analysis of word-length distributions illustrate that natural languages tend toward an optimal form.
  • Such optimality helps minimize information loss and balances the needs of effective communication against the tendency toward entropy.
• Grammatical Purism versus Living Language:
  • Overemphasis on rigid grammatical norms (for example, in classical Latin) is critiqued.
  • Language thrives as a flexible, dynamically optimized tool shaped by everyday use rather than by purely prescriptive rules.

8. Social and Technological Dimensions of Language

• Impact on Social Structures:
  • Improved methods of communication (from messengers and roads in ancient empires to modern telephony and the internet) have historically underpinned the growth and stability of large, complex societies.
• Technological Integration:
  • The extension of human communication to interactions with machines (as in automated power stations) reinforces the idea that communication mechanisms underlie both social and technical systems.
• Prospect for Global Connectivity:
  • Advances in communication technology are seen as pivotal in bridging geographical and cultural divides, hinting at the possibility of a more interconnected—or even global—community.