The Human Use of Human Beings
E158218
The Human Use of Human Beings is a seminal book by cybernetics pioneer Norbert Wiener that explores the social, ethical, and philosophical implications of automation, communication, and control in human society.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Human Use of Human Beings canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1374533 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Human Use of Human Beings Context triple: [Norbert Wiener, notableWork, The Human Use of Human Beings]
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A.
Humanum Genus
Humanum Genus is an 1884 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII that condemns Freemasonry and outlines the Catholic Church’s opposition to its principles and influence.
-
B.
The Study of Man
The Study of Man is a foundational 1936 anthropology book by Ralph Linton that systematically introduces and explains the nature of culture and human societies.
-
C.
Models of Man
Models of Man is a seminal book by Herbert A. Simon that explores human decision-making and behavior through the lens of bounded rationality and mathematical models in the social sciences.
-
D.
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" is a secret speech delivered in 1956 that denounced Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian rule and marked a major turning point in Soviet politics and de-Stalinization.
-
E.
One-Dimensional Man
One-Dimensional Man is a 1964 philosophical critique by Herbert Marcuse that analyzes how advanced industrial societies create conformist, "one-dimensional" thinking that undermines genuine freedom and critical consciousness.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Human Use of Human Beings Target entity description: The Human Use of Human Beings is a seminal book by cybernetics pioneer Norbert Wiener that explores the social, ethical, and philosophical implications of automation, communication, and control in human society.
-
A.
Humanum Genus
Humanum Genus is an 1884 encyclical by Pope Leo XIII that condemns Freemasonry and outlines the Catholic Church’s opposition to its principles and influence.
-
B.
The Study of Man
The Study of Man is a foundational 1936 anthropology book by Ralph Linton that systematically introduces and explains the nature of culture and human societies.
-
C.
Models of Man
Models of Man is a seminal book by Herbert A. Simon that explores human decision-making and behavior through the lens of bounded rationality and mathematical models in the social sciences.
-
D.
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences
"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" is a secret speech delivered in 1956 that denounced Joseph Stalin’s authoritarian rule and marked a major turning point in Soviet politics and de-Stalinization.
-
E.
One-Dimensional Man
One-Dimensional Man is a 1964 philosophical critique by Herbert Marcuse that analyzes how advanced industrial societies create conformist, "one-dimensional" thinking that undermines genuine freedom and critical consciousness.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction book ⓘ work on cybernetics ⓘ |
| addresses |
concept of information as negative entropy
ⓘ
freedom and control in technological societies ⓘ probabilistic nature of communication ⓘ relationship between humans and machines ⓘ |
| advocates |
ethical responsibility of scientists and engineers
ⓘ
human-centered use of technology ⓘ |
| author | Norbert Wiener ⓘ |
| basedOn | Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| describes |
feedback mechanisms in social systems
ⓘ
impact of automation on labor ⓘ role of information in society ⓘ |
| genre |
ethics
ⓘ
philosophy of technology ⓘ science ⓘ |
| hasAuthorOccupation |
cyberneticist
ⓘ
mathematician ⓘ |
| hasEdition |
1950 first edition
ⓘ
1954 revised edition ⓘ |
| influenced |
ethics of artificial intelligence
ⓘ
information society studies ⓘ philosophy of cybernetics ⓘ social theory of technology ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
automation
ⓘ
communication ⓘ communication theory ⓘ control ⓘ cybernetics ⓘ entropy ⓘ ethics of automation ⓘ feedback ⓘ human–machine interaction ⓘ information theory ⓘ social impact of technology ⓘ |
| notableFor |
early ethical analysis of automation
ⓘ
interdisciplinary approach to technology and society ⓘ popularization of cybernetics concepts ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1950 ⓘ |
| publisher | Houghton Mifflin ⓘ |
| timePeriodDiscussed | mid-20th century ⓘ |
| warnsAbout |
dehumanization through automation
ⓘ
misuse of communication and control technologies ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Human Use of Human Beings Description of subject: The Human Use of Human Beings is a seminal book by cybernetics pioneer Norbert Wiener that explores the social, ethical, and philosophical implications of automation, communication, and control in human society.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Norbert Wiener
Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
→
followedBy
→
The Human Use of Human Beings
ⓘ