Joseph Weizenbaum
Joseph Weizenbaum (* 8. January 1923 in Berlin , † 5. March 2008 in Gröben ) was a German - American computer scientist and science and social critic . Weizenbaum described himself as a dissident and heretic of computer science.
Life
Weizenbaum was the son of the master furrier Jechiel Weizenbaum and his wife Henriette. One of his brothers was the computer scientist Heinrich Weizenbaum (1921-2005), who renamed himself Henry F. Sherwood on the occasion of his naturalization in the USA . Joseph Weizenbaum attended the Luisenstädtische Realgymnasium in Berlin, but was referred to the Jewish boys' school in the mid-1930s . The Jewish family emigrated from Bremen to the USA in 1936 . From 1941, Weizenbaum first studied mathematics there at Wayne State University in Detroit , Michigan. He interrupted his studies in 1942 due to his service in the meteorological department of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II .
In 1946 he resumed his studies and graduated with a master's degree in 1950 . He then became a research assistant at the Faculty of Mathematics for the design, construction and operation of a mainframe computer . From 1952 to 1963, Weizenbaum worked as a systems engineer in the Computer Development Laboratory of General Electric Corporation , where he was involved in the design of the first computer banking system. In 1963 he began his work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), first as an associate professor and from 1970 as a professor of computer science . In the second half of the 1960s he worked on building the Arpanet , a forerunner of the Internet .
In 1966, Weizenbaum published the computer program ELIZA , with which he wanted to demonstrate the processing of natural language by a computer. Eliza was celebrated as a milestone in " artificial intelligence "; his variant Doctor simulated a conversation with a psychologist . It appeared to pass the Turing test as many users failed to realize they were communicating with a machine. Weizenbaum was horrified at how seriously many people took this relatively simple program by revealing the most intimate details of themselves in dialogue. The program was never designed to replace a human therapist . Through this key experience, Weizenbaum became a critic of thoughtless belief in computers. Today, Eliza is considered a prototype for modern chatbots .
Since that time, Weizenbaum has warned the critical use of computers and the responsibility of the scientist for his actions. He particularly emphasized that the actual decision-making power must always remain in human hands, even if artificial intelligent systems are used as a means of obtaining information. He was a co-founder of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility in the USA, co-founder and later advisory board of the Forum for Computer Scientists for Peace and Social Responsibility in Germany and Chairman of the Scientific Council at the Institute of Electronic Business in Berlin. He also worked with computer scientists from the University of Bremen and gave guest lectures there. During his time at MIT, Weizenbaum refused to participate in the development of weapons and weapons systems for the Vietnam War , was involved as a critical reconnaissance and took part in demonstrations.
From 1996, Weizenbaum lived again in Berlin-Mitte , near one of his daughters, not far from the former parents' apartment. He had four daughters with his wife Ruth.
Weizenbaum died in 2008 at the age of 85 of complications from a stroke , after having had cancer in 2007 that was unsuccessfully treated with chemotherapy . He was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee .
Honors
- 2001: Large Federal Cross of Merit
- 2002: Society for Computer Science - honorary membership.
- Honorary doctorates from the University of Hamburg , the University of Bremen and Doctor of Humane Literature from Webster College (USA)
- Norbert Wiener Prize of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
- “Lifetime Achievement” prize from the Forum for Computer Scientists for Peace and Social Responsibility
- 2017: Name sponsorship for the Weizenbaum Institute for the networked society (" German Internet Institute ")
- The FIfF donates the Weizenbaum Prize and the Weizenbaum Study Prize in memory of the scientist and computer science pioneer.
- In 2018 Thomas Kerstan added the book The Power of Computers and the Powerlessness of Reason (1976) to his canon for the 21st century , a selection of works that he believes "everyone should know".
Fonts
Monographs
- 1977: Computer Power and Human Reason. From Judgment to Calculation . WH Freeman and Company. German as The Power of Computers and the Powerlessness of Reason , Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-518-27874-6 (also ISBN 3-518-57456-6 - hardcover)
- 1984: The course on the iceberg or just the miracle will save us, says the computer expert . Zurich: Pendo-Verlag, ISBN 3-85842-087-5
- 1987: Course on the iceberg. The responsibility of the individual in the dictatorship of technology (Piper series; 3rd edition, 19th thousand), ISBN 3-492-10541-6
- 1990: Weizenbaum versus Haefner: Are computers better people? ISBN 3-85842-252-5 (also Piper, Munich, ISBN 3-492-11470-9 )
- 1993: who invents the computer myths? Progress in the great error . Herder, Freiburg, ISBN 3-451-04192-8
- 1998: Knowledge and Information (with Johannes Hartkemeyer). Series of Thinking Books , Vol. 1, LIT Verlag, Münster u. a., ISBN 3-8258-4075-1
- 2001: Computer Power and Society . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-518-29155-6
- 2002: From trading on the net. Dimensions of globalization (with Omar Akbar and Anne Helfensteller; 2nd edition). form + Zweck Verlag, ISBN 3-935053-01-0
- 2003: War is the Enemy - The Scientist's Responsibility . 2 CD set, 116 minutes. supposé, Cologne, ISBN 3-932513-40-1 online
- 2006: Where are they, the islands of reason in the cyber stream? (with Gunna Wendt). Herder, Freiburg, ISBN 3-451-28864-8
- 2015: Islands in the Cyberstream (with Gunna Wendt). Litwin Books, Sacramento, CA / USA, ISBN 978-1-63400-000-0
Articles (selection)
- 1962: Knotted list structures . In: Communications of the ACM . 5, No. 3, 1962, pp. 161-165. doi : 10.1145 / 367593.367617 .
- 1963: Symmetric list processor . In: Communications of the ACM . 6, No. 9, 1963, pp. 524-536. doi : 10.1145 / 367593.367617 .
- 1964, with Lynn Yarbrough: SLIP . In: Communications of the ACM . 7, No. 1, 1964, p. 2. doi : 10.1145 / 363872.363877 .
- 1964: More on the Reference Counter Method of erasing list structures . In: Communications of the ACM . 7, No. 1, 1964, p. 38. doi : 10.1145 / 363872.363881 .
- 1964, with DG Bobrow: List Processing and Extension of Language Facility by Embedding . In: IEEE Transactions on Electronic Computers . August 13, 1964, pp. 395-400. doi : 10.1109 / PGEC.1964.263820 .
- 1966: ELIZA - A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication between Man and Machine . In: Communications of the ACM . 9, No. 1, 1966, pp. 36-45. doi : 10.1145 / 365153.365168 .
- 1966: On-line User Languages . In: Tidskrift for Information Treatment . 6, 1966, pp. -.
- 1967: Contextual understanding by computers . In: Communications of the ACM . 10, No. 8, 1967, pp. 474-480. doi : 10.1145 / 363534.363545 .
- 1969: Recovery of reentrant list structures in SLIP . In: Communications of the ACM . 12, No. 7, 1969, pp. 370-372. doi : 10.1145 / 363156.363159 .
- 1969, with Slagle and Thompson: Eliza . In: Communications of the ACM . 9, No. 1, January 1969, pp. -.
- 1970, with Fenichel and Yochelson: A Program to Teach Programming . In: Communications of the ACM . 13, No. 3, 1970, pp. 141-146. doi : 10.1145 / 362052.362053 .
- 1977: A Response to Donald Michie (Book Review) . In: International Journal of Man-Machine Studies . 9, No. 4, 1977, pp. 503-505. doi : 10.1016 / S0020-7373 (77) 80016-3 .
- 1980: The reception of the book “The power of computers and the powerlessness of reason” . In: GI annual conference, IT reports . 33, 1980, p. 65.
- 1993: Seven Year's Later: Computers in Schools, once again . In: Informatics and Changes in Learning, IFIP Transactions, North-Holland Publ. . A-34, 1993, pp. 67-76.
- 2008: Social and Political Impact of the Long-term History of Computing . In: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing . 30, No. 3, 2008, pp. 40-42. doi : 10.1109 / MAHC.2008.58 .
See also
- Computer science and society
- Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society - The German Internet Institute
Literature, film
- Horst-Eberhard Richter : Morality in times of crisis . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-518-46231-7 .
- Wheat tree. Rebel at Work. Documentary, Germany, USA, Austria, 2006, 80 min., Written and directed by Peter Haas and Silvia Holzinger ( images and archive for the film )
- Wolfgang Bittner / Mark vom Hofe: I'm laughing in there somewhere. Joseph Weizenbaum . In: I meddle. Striking German résumés. Horlemann, Bad Honnef 2006, ISBN 978-3-89502-222-7 .
- Video: Joseph Weizenbaum as a guest at the “Computer Science Day” at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg , 2007
- “AI Vision and Reality” - Lecture by Joseph Weizenbaum at the Technical University of Munich on May 10, 2007: Lecture recording
- Plug & Pray - From computers and other people , D 2010, author Jens Schanze , 91 min
Web links
- Literature by and about Joseph Weizenbaum in the catalog of the German National Library
- Joseph Weizenbaum in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Joseph Weizenbaum in the Beats Library Network
- Joseph Weizenbaum at the international student week in Ilmenau 1993 (PDF, 1 p.)
- General information on the person of Joseph Weizenbaum. (English)
- “We look for knowledge and drown in information.” Lecture at the Teleakademie . First broadcast: May 6, 2001, duration 44:07 minutes.
- Video: An encounter with Joseph Weizenbaum . Christian Geisler 2008, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.5446 / 31304 .
Articles by / about Weizenbaum
- "Nightmare Computer" , Die Zeit No. 03/1972 of January 21, 1972, p. 43
- "The computer as a problem solver?" , Martin Welker speaks with Joseph Weizenbaum on April 22, 1993 in Heidelberg (on the occasion of a symposium of the "Heidelberg Club for Business and Culture eV" on the subject of "The challenge of information society"), 6 takes
- Wolfgang Kirkamm: Joseph Weizenbaum: “I'm just a fig leaf”. In: Berliner Zeitung . March 25, 1995. Retrieved June 17, 2015 .
- “The powerlessness of the individual is perhaps the most dangerous illusion a person can have.” Regine Kather speaks to Joseph Weizenbaum, first broadcast on Radio Bremen , October 12, 1995, repeat Ö1
- Lecture in Osnabrück 1996 ( Memento from April 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- Interview with Weizenbaum , SWR , April / May 2002 (English)
- “Being different as a chance” , Telepolis , March 13, 2006
- "Daily scrap in the media" , Interview by Ulrich Hottelet in politik-digital.de 30 May, 2007.
- “Against the Zeitgeist” (PDF; 126 kB), special edition on FIfF communication August 2007
- “We against greed” , Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 8, 2008, “The earth is a madhouse. The knowledge that mankind has achieved to date could turn it into a paradise. "
Obituaries
- The last service: on the death of Joe Weizenbaum. In: Heise online . March 6, 2008, accessed June 17, 2015 .
- The critic leaves, the criticism remains. In: Spiegel Online . March 8, 2008, accessed June 17, 2015 .
- The critic of the internet. In: FAZ . March 8, 2008, accessed June 17, 2015 .
- Joseph Weizenbaum, Famed Programmer, Is Dead at 85. In: The New York Times . March 13, 2008, accessed June 17, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joseph Weizenbaum: Course on the iceberg . Piper, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-492-10541-6 , p. 15.
- ↑ Konstantin Baierer: Memories of Joseph Weizenbaum (PDF; 124 kB), at www.libreas.eu
- ↑ Joseph Weizenbaum. Retrieved November 12, 2018 .
- ↑ The Computer Scientist Who Became a Critic. Retrieved November 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Joseph Weizenbaum - an attempt at a biography of Wolfgang Löw, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology , Magdeburg (PDF; 43 kB)
- ↑ Wheat Tree. Rebel at Work. Documentary by Peter Haas and Silvia Holzinger
- ↑ In Palo Alto family photo around 1960
- ^ Page on the death of Josef Weizenbaum on the TU Berlin homepage
- ^ Report from Computerwoche from April 3, 1998
- ↑ The German Internet Institute starts its work , Social Science Research Center Berlin , September 21, 2017.
- ↑ FIfF donates the Weizenbaum Prize
- ↑ Th. Kerstan: What our children need to know. A canon for the 21st century. Hamburg 2018. p. 11, 216f.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Weizenbaum, Joseph |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American computer scientist and social critic |
DATE OF BIRTH | January 8, 1923 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
DATE OF DEATH | March 5, 2008 |
Place of death | Berlin |