Cybernetics Forrester at MIT in the 1950s, is a related field. Cybernetics has been defined in a variety of ways, by a variety of people, from a variety of disciplines. Cybernetician Stuart Umpleby reports some notable definitions: Other notable definitions include: The term "cybernetics" stems from κυβερνήτης ("cybernḗtēs") "steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder". As with the ancient Greek pilot, independence of thought is important in cybernetics. French physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère first coined the word "cybernetique" in his 1834 essay "Essai sur la philosophie des sciences" to describe the science of civil government. The term was borrowed by Norbert Wiener,
William James Sidis of intelligence as "silly, pedantic, absurd, and grossly misleading". Regardless of the exaggerations, Sidis is judged by other high IQ peers such as MIT Physics professor Daniel Frost Comstock and notable American mathematician Norbert Wiener to have had real ability. Sidis' life and work, particularly his ideas about Native Americans, are extensively discussed in Robert M. Pirsig's book "" (1991). Sidis is also discussed in "Ex-Prodigy", an autobiography by mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894–1964), who was a prodigy himself and a contemporary of Sidis at Harvard. A Danish author Morten Brask wrote a fictional novel based on Sidis' life; "The Perfect