The Hindu Business Line : Wiener, designer of the first modern computer

Meet `the most remarkable boy in the world' whose footprints are everywhere today - etched in silicon, wandering in cyberspace, and in every corner of daily life.

FLO Conway and Jim Siegelman set off in search of Norbert Wiener, who was named "the most remarkable boy in the world," in 1906, and who earned his Ph.D. at 18 from Harvard.

The authors' efforts bring back the forgotten Dark Hero of the Information Age, a new book from Basic Books (www.basicbooks.com) .

"His footprints are everywhere today, etched in silicon, wandering in cyberspace, and in every corner of daily life," is how the authors introduce us to Wiener.

That builds up suspense, because as quizzers would nod in agreement, we only know Wiener as the father of `cybernetics'. Wonder how many of us knew that he worked on "the design of the first modern computer" in the 1920s, and also "helped create the first intelligent automated machines" during World War II.

Or that he cracked "the communication codes of the human nervous system" and incorporated the same "into the circuits of the first programmable `electronic brains'."

The book's prologue records how Wiener was "the first to perceive the essence of the new stuff called `information'."

Led by him, a medical team created "the first bionic arm controlled by the user's own thoughts."

But things changed after the US dropped the A-bombs in Japan; Wiener was heartbroken.

The day after Hiroshima, he is reported to have said that the bomb's salient fact was not that it had brought a swift end to the war, but that it marked the coming of "a new world... with which we should have to live ever after".

Sometime later when Boeing requested him for a copy of `Yellow Peril' manuscript, a classified monograph of his, to use in designing guided missiles, Wiener refused.

The January 1947 issue of Atlantic Monthly carried his protest; Flo and Jim note that Wiener was "the first scientist associated with the new communication and control technologies who publicly refused to cooperate with the government and its agents on a project ostensibly in the nation's defence."

The rebellion was something that Einstein would approve of. After putting a full stop to pursuing work on computing, Wiener spread awareness among workers on the perils of automated society, about "machines that think, pass judgments - and even have nervous breakdowns".

He predicted that unskilled human being may become obsolete, and "this thing will come like an earthquake."

To Wiener, information was `content' whose value "was tied to its value for human survival and to its real potential to inform and improve the lives of people and societies."

He argued for "unhampered exchange" of knowledge and information in every form, write the authors.

In the 1950s, Wiener advised the Indian Government to train "a new generation of `non-commissioned officers of science and technology'", because opportunity for growth lay in new technology industries.

The epilogue mentions one of Wiener's greatest concerns: "That the speed and complexity of intelligent technology would outstrip people's capacities to respond to their machines and to keep them fully under human control." This is no empty warning, point out the authors, for this is happening already; "thresholds have already been crossed with many digital systems and programs deployed in critical arenas of society - from the Internet to the stock markets." A brilliant biography.

Keep BP out of BPO!

MAY a million BPOs bloom,' is the opening wish of BPO Digest, edited by Deepak Shikarpur, and published by Ameya (ulhas_latkar@rediffmail.com). "We have reached a stage where no global technology strategy will be without a reference to India," writes Deepak optimistically in his preface.

"BPO is the Best Possible Option," he explains, and again as, "Business Process Optimisation." But he concedes, "The true potential of `smartsourcing' is yet to be realised." The book contains more than 40 chapters, divided into sections titled, overview, practice, key verticals, case studies, and white papers.

The opening batsman Anand Pathak makes a candid statement: that many BPO offices are "replicas of the American offices". While they may be successful in attracting young talent, what count are "financial stability and service capability and not cosmetic infrastructures," he reminds.

Achyut Godbole emphasises that getting BPO business is tougher than in the case of software, because BPO is "a matter of trust". Sesh Sukhdeo identifies `traits of successful outsourcers,' Ganesh Natarajan cranks up the `dynamics of setting up BPOs,' while K. Ramachandran and Sudhir Voleti discuss cost efficiencies, both of transaction and production.

Vasant Kaujalgi predicts a great future for `domain experts' but insists that BPOs should rely "more on business competence rather than on IT competence."

Sanjeevani Vaze draws `accountability' lessons from Abu Ghraib jail, and Chandan Chatterjee exhorts BPOs to focus on `core competence'. There are a few nuts-and-bolts pieces too such as on how to form a company, laws to keep in mind, and tips on real estate, and the telecom infrastructure required.

Lalit Khanna pays attention to attrition, Neelesh Shrikhande calls `service-level contract' the life-saving document, Sandip Mukherjee looks at BPO tax issues, and C.R. Apte counsels on information protection.

After basic needs are met, you need to raise the bar and see Six Sigma and COPC (Customer Operations Performance Centre) certification, and negotiate mergers and takeovers. Vikram R. Limaye provides an NRI perspective to BPO, Chandan Chatterjee guides in the setting up of call/contact centre, and Laurie Dobson writes on productivity and quality issues.

In the `verticals' section are articles on insurance and financial services. Case studies include Progeon, WNS Global Services, Crossdomain, Vital Link Outsourcing, Atlas Legal Research, Neilsoft and so on. Quite offbeat, but H.V. Sardesai tells you how you can keep BP out of BPO and be healthy. Good work.

Tailpiece

"I know a cell maniac who has so many handsets... "

"That he doesn't know which one is ringing?"

"Plus, and he often ends up calling himself!"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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Wiener, designer of the first modern computer

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