Reading Wiener in Rio

Felipe Pait offered a distinctive perspective on Wiener's legacy by examining how his works are read and interpreted in Brazil, far from the American and European academic centers where cybernetics originated. Pait explored the ways in which cultural context shapes the reception of scientific ideas, demonstrating that Wiener's insights about communication and feedback resonate differently across different intellectual traditions.

The presentation highlighted the universal applicability of Wiener's core ideas while acknowledging that their meaning shifts when encountered in new cultural and institutional settings. Pait's reading of Wiener from Rio illustrated how cybernetics functions not merely as a technical discipline but as a framework for understanding communication itself, including the cross-cultural communication involved in transmitting scientific knowledge across national boundaries.