Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine
by Norbert Wiener, Doug Hill, Sanjoy Mitter · first published 1948
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Cybernetics describes the application of statistical mechanics methods to communications engineering. Its subject matter ranges from such control mechanisms as servo-mechanisms, mathematical calculators, and automatic pilots, to the nerves and brain of the human body. This is a study of human control functions and mechanico-electrical systems designed to replace them. As such it impinges on every branch of science. It is the outgrowth of extensive theoretical study and experimentation by Dr. Wiener and a group of outstanding scientists -- including physiologists, psychologists, mathemati
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…the Living_ by Maturana and Varela Anything by Niklass Luhmann about social systems: the economy, mass media, art, functional differentiation, … He was a student of Talcott Parsons Norbert Wiener, _Cybernetics: Or Control And Communication in the Animal and the Machine_ and _The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society_ _An Introduction to Cybernetics_ by W. Ross Ashby McCullogh and Pitts (You mention Minsky but not these dudes.) _A Logical Calculus of the…
on “Alan Kay's reading list” ↗…real world): =Bertrand Russell= * An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth * A Theory of Knowledge * Logic and Knowledge =W.V. Quine= * Word and Object * Mathematical Logic =Norbert Weiner= * Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine =Smullyan= * Diagonalization and Self Reference Squishy Human Things: Thomas Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Norbert Weiner - The Human Use of Human-Beings Bertrand Russell…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗…to Cybernetics" is technical and very much in the spirit of CS. A lot of what gets called "cybernetics" tends to be kind of "fluffy" and I personally avoid that stuff. I'd recommend Norbert Wiener's "Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics:_Or_Control_and_Co... And "Behavior, Purpose and Teleology" by Rosenblueth, Wiener and Bigelow: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/Wiener-teleology.pdf
on “How to Be a Systems Thinker” ↗…this discussion. To add to this I'd broadly recommend in (loose order) for people interested in Cybernetics. Maxwell, "On Governors": https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~v1ranick/papers/maxwell1.pdf Wiener, "Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine pdf" : https://sci-hub.tw/10.2307/1266498 Also the following is a very interesting read, "Cybernetics and Information Theory in the United States, France and the Soviet Union": https://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_word/shannon-wiener.h...
on “Introduction to Cybernetics (1957)” ↗Norbert Wiener released "Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" in 1948. 65 years later, people are still debating the issue and constantly come up with fancy new terms for the subject (i.e. titles for grant proposals). What I take away from this group is that deterministic…
on “Cyber-Physical Systems” ↗1948, Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics; or, Control and communication in the animal and the machine. https://www.worldcat.org/title/cybernetics-or-control-and-co... Incidentally, pronounced "cyber-NEET-iks", originally. And explicitly intended to apply to biological and social systems. Also: The…
on “My dad’s resume and skills from 1980” ↗This is not new ground. See Cybernetics: Or Control_and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948) by Norbert Wiener. Wiener wrote a popular version, "The Human Use of Human Beings".[2] There's a whole history of cybernetics as a field. This Wikipedia article has a good summary.[3] The beginnings…
on ““The Mind in the Wheel” lays out a new foundation for the science of mind” ↗…universalis, Leibniz (c. 1679) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis * As We May Think, Vannevar Bush (1945) - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-m... * Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Norbert Wiener (1948) - https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph-pdf/2254528/book_9... * An Introduction to Cybernetics, Ashby (1956) - https://ashby.info/Ashby-Introduction-to-Cybernetics.pdf * Man-Computer…
on “Man and the Computer by John G. Kemeny (1972 book by the co-creator of BASIC)” ↗…his books, and the sense I get is that he was doing all of this for the sake of humanity. "The Human Use of Human Beings" wasn't written for the sake of a department that was obsessed with publishing. "Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" wasn't written for an industry with adtech blinders on. I am looking forward to investigating Walter and Deming per your recommendations.
on “El Ajedrecista” ↗…remember that the automatic machine is the precise economic equivalent of slave labor. Any labor which competes with slave labor must accept the economic consequences of slave labor.” ― Norbert Weiner, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
on “Socialism is incompatible with human nature” ↗