There are very few people of his standing in science at that time, and I believe since, with the fortitude to resist temptation to take the high paying gig despite the moral implications. Joseph Rotblat comes to mind.
It's possible this is a moral stance but I'm not so sure, it some what feels like a pain reaction. I must admit I've had the same thought about my own actions, I hate to see people suffer too the point where it has a pain like sensation, If I've been the cause of it I try to rectified quickly, is this morality?
I would argue that whatever the associated reaction/cause, the outcome is a moral stance as it influenced his decisions based on the consequences his actions might have on other people. OTOH, if Wiener felt bad about other people's suffering but it didn't affect his choices, it wouldn't be a moral stance.
Still, I think in non sci-fi scenarios, an abhorrence for suffering and moral behavior are very much linked, if not perfectly equal.
In fact, the sources I’ve read said he was quite enthusiastic about helping out for both WWI and WWII.
For example:
https://www.cantorsparadise.com/the-absent-minded-father-of-...
The article conveys a sense of the intellectual milieu in and around Cambridge in 1913. That must have been a remarkable time to have been at Cambridge and majored in philosophy and or mathematics with the likes of Russell, Wiener, Wittgenstein, G.E. Moore, G.H. Hardy J.E. Littlewood, A.N. Whitehead all there at the same time—even Srinivasa Ramanujan was there in 1913!
I'd have loved to have been around this intellectual tour de force when I was studying those subjects. Ah, well, I'll just have to be content with the fact that a number of my textbooks were written by four of them not to mention other notables who they'd influenced.
You get to do something they could only dream of back then - fast forward the wheels of history 100 years past two world wars to the age of science fiction where machines can think and speak, planet earth grows food for 8 billion people, and the moon is littered with human footprints from a generation ago.
Those philosophers would love nothing more than to spend an hour with you listening to your descriptions and thoughts about the world you live in.
Although they still do the Math Tripos, the Greats program in Ancient Greek and Latin seems to have befallen modern times and is sadly diminished. One wonders what we are losing ;)
[1] https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/classics
For those evermore curious...
https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/interview-bertrand-rus...
The interview is relatively long though, and searching for those words is not a sufficient indication, so I am curious.
I have looked, and I have yet to find serious recorded mentions of Russell on these topics, only transcripts, letters, etc..
Said Mr. Einstein in 1925. He was right.
Would have been interested in the specific insights that affected the work of each other (beyond Logicism and Platonic Realism).
Interesting that Wiener's genius (and his suicidal depression) may have been partly result of his fathers educational experiment.
