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Day 5

First non fiction in my list.

Norbert Wiener: Mathematik - Mein Leben (original title: I am a Mathematician)

I don't think, it's possible to overstate the influence, this book had on my life.

When I got it from my grandpa, I thought "This looks boring, and who is this guy, anyway?",

1/?

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@HistoPol @mattotcha @energiepirat @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @GreenFire @evelynefoerster @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @MaJ1 @2ndStar @scb

in reply to Mina

Ah OK. I had begun to think that you were a wunderkind, Mina.

I (partially )read an astrophysics book from college at that age (the US ones used to have less mathematics in them 😉.) Alas, it was lent to me, so IDK which one anymore.

@mattotcha @energiepirat @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @GreenFire @evelynefoerster @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @MaJ1 @2ndStar @scb

in reply to Mina

so it first went directly to the shelf, until one day, I felt the strong urge to procrastinate, grabbed it and started to read.

It turned out to be a well written autobiography. Wiener tells his life from being recognised as a "prodigy child" in a Jewish family in the early 20th century in the US, to becoming the "Father of Cybernetics"

2/?

@mattotcha @energiepirat @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @GreenFire @evelynefoerster @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @MaJ1 @2ndStar @scb

in reply to Mina

(he coined the term), the science of communication and steering in machines and animals.

He describes his involvement in scientific research in both world wars, despite his strong pacificism, and his activism for "free science" across borders afterwards, which brought him into some trouble in the McCarthy era.

However: He described his actual work with so

3/?

@HistoPol @mattotcha @energiepirat @VeroniqueB99 @si_irini @GreenFire @evelynefoerster @SilviaMarton @forthy42 @MaJ1 @2ndStar @scb

in reply to HistoPol (#HP)

What else should come up with such a name? Nürnberger, Regensburger, Frankfurter - always the same coincidence. The authorities in the medievals in central Europe made their lifes pretty easy naming many jewish people after the locations where the lived.
in reply to Mina

#20Books20Days - The challenge is to choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. #books #BookWyrm @mina

Tag 5
Umberto #Eco "Das #Foucault|sche #Pendel"

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