In information thermodynamics, Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was an American mathematician notable for his development of the science of cybernetics, the subject of the set of problems centered around communication, control, and statistical mechanics (statistical thermodynamics), whether in machine or in a living organism. [1] In his logic, he made a connection between "information", which he correlated with the degree of a system's organization, and the inverse of entropy, which translates with the use of a negative sign in logarithmic terms. [3] The thermodynamic part of Wiener's theory, being based on the weak footing of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger's idea of negative-entropy, is generally considered as an off-logic extrapolation, but, however, one which has had historical impact.

Overview
In 1948, Schrödinger's 1945 overly-simplified descriptions of negative-entropy and life, Wiener postulated that "the notion of information attaches itself very naturally to a classical notion in statistical mechanics: that of entropy." [1] As such, Wiener argued naively that "just as the amount of information in a system is a measure of its degree of organization, so the entropy of a system is a measure of its degree of disorganization; and the one is simply the negative of the other." He continues "this point of view leads us to a number of considerations concerning the second law of thermodynamics, and to a study of the possibility of the so-called Maxwell demons." On this logic, he states that such questions arise independently in the study of the phenomenon of living matter, as metabolism and reproduction, and that a "third fundamental phenomenon of life, that of irritability, belongs to the domain of communication theory (cybernetics)."

In his 1950 The Human Use of Human Beings, Wiener outlined his general theory:

“It is my thesis that the physical functioning of the living individual and the operation of some of the newer communication machines are precisely parallel in their analogous attempts to control entropy through feedback. Both of them have sensory receptors as one stage in their cycle of operations: that is, in both of them there exists a special apparatus for collecting information from the outer world at low energy levels, and for making it available in the operation of the individual or the machine.”

He continues, “in both cases, these external messages are not taken in neat, but through the internal transforming powers of the apparatus, whether it be alive or dead …the information is then turned into a new form available for the further states of performance.” [2]

References
1. Wiener, Norber. (1948). Cybernetics - or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, (pgs. 11-12). Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press.
2. (a) Wiener, Norber. (1950). The Human Uses of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, (pgs. 26-27). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
(b) Bynum W.F. and Porter, Roy. (2005). Oxford Dictionary of Scientfic Quotations, (pg. 624). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3. Entropy and Information (Norbert Wiener Quotes).