Difference between revisions of "Cybernetics"

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[[Image:Dubberly_Hugh_Pangaro_Paul_2015_Social_Graph_of_Cybernetics.jpg|thumb|350px|Hugh Dubberly, Paul Pangaro, Social graph of cybernetics, 2015. [[Media:Dubberly_Hugh_Pangaro_Paul_2015_Social_Graph_of_Cybernetics.pdf|PDF]]. [http://cybergraph.dubberly.com/ Interactive version]. [[#DubberlyPangaro2015|Article]].]]
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A bibliographical genealogy of cybernetics in the United States, France, Soviet Union, and Germany in the 1940s and 1950s, and of second-order cybernetics from 1968, followed by a selected bibliography on its impact across the sciences.
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==Scientists==
 
==Scientists==
 
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** ''Cybernética y sociedad'', México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984. {{es}}
 
** ''Cybernética y sociedad'', México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984. {{es}}
  
===Macy Conferences on Cybernetics (1946-53)===
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===Macy Conferences on Cybernetics (1946-1953)===
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference'', New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1949.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference'', New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1949.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Seventh Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1950.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Seventh Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1950.
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* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Ninth Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1953.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Ninth Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1953.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Tenth Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1955.
 
* ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Tenth Conference'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, and Hans Lukas Teuber, New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1955.
* Claus Pias (ed.), ''Cybernetics | Kybernetik 1: The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953. Band 1. Transactions/Protokolle'', Zürich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2003, 736 pp. [http://diaphanes.net/buch/detail/27] [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Books/Gerard.pdf]
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* ''[https://hostb.org/5Z8/Pias,%20Claus%20ed.%20-%20Cybernetics%20The%20Macy%20Conferences%201946-1953%20I%202003.pdf Cybernetics | Kybernetik 1: The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953. Band 1. Transactions/Protokolle]'', ed. Claus Pias, Zürich/Berlin: Diaphanes, 2003, 736 pp. [http://diaphanes.net/buch/detail/27] [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Books/Gerard.pdf] {{de}},{{en}}
** ''The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953: The Complete Transactions'', Zürich: Diaphanes, 2016, 736 pp. [http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo23348570.html] {{en}}
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* ''[https://hostb.org/PX2/Pias,%20Claus%20ed.%20-%20Cybernetics%20The%20Macy%20Conferences%201946-1953%20II%202004.pdf Cybernetics | Kybernetik 2: The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953. Band 2. Documents/Dokumente]'', ed. Claus Pias, Zürich: diaphanes, 2004, 512 pp. [http://www.uni-due.de/~bj0063/texte/cyber_intro.pdf Introduction]. [http://www.diaphanes.net/buch/detail/46] {{de}},{{en}}
* Claus Pias (ed.), ''Cybernetics | Kybernetik 2: The Macy-Conferences 1946–1953. Band 2. Documents/Dokumente'', Zürich: diaphanes, 2004, 512 pp. [http://www.uni-due.de/~bj0063/texte/cyber_intro.pdf Introduction]. [http://www.diaphanes.net/buch/detail/46] {{de}},{{en}}
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* ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=21882 Cybernetics: The Macy-Conferences 1946-1953: The Complete Transactions]'', ed. Claus Pias, Zürich: Diaphanes, 2016, 734 pp.
  
 
[[Image:Couffignal_Louis_Les_machines_a_penser.jpg|thumb|258px|Louis Couffignal, ''Les machines à penser'', 1952.]]
 
[[Image:Couffignal_Louis_Les_machines_a_penser.jpg|thumb|258px|Louis Couffignal, ''Les machines à penser'', 1952.]]
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* Louis Couffignal, ''Denkmaschinen'' [1952], trans. Elisabeth Walther with Max Bense, intro. Max Bense, Stuttgart: Klipper, 1955, 186 pp; 1965. {{de}} (see details above)
 
* Louis Couffignal, ''Denkmaschinen'' [1952], trans. Elisabeth Walther with Max Bense, intro. Max Bense, Stuttgart: Klipper, 1955, 186 pp; 1965. {{de}} (see details above)
 
* Werner Meyer-Eppler, ''Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Informationstheorie'', Berlin: Springer, 1959, xviii+446 pp; 2nd ed., eds. Georg Heike and K. Löhn, Berlin: Springer, 1969. {{de}}. Reviews: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/phbl.19600160512/pdf Tamm] (1960), [http://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183523859 Billingsley] (1961, EN), [http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?PPN=GDZPPN002449374&IDDOC=198865 Adam] (1965).</onlyinclude>
 
* Werner Meyer-Eppler, ''Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Informationstheorie'', Berlin: Springer, 1959, xviii+446 pp; 2nd ed., eds. Georg Heike and K. Löhn, Berlin: Springer, 1969. {{de}}. Reviews: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/phbl.19600160512/pdf Tamm] (1960), [http://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.bams/1183523859 Billingsley] (1961, EN), [http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?PPN=GDZPPN002449374&IDDOC=198865 Adam] (1965).</onlyinclude>
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===Second-order cybernetics (1968-1975ff)===
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* Margaret Mead, "The Cybernetics of Cybernetics", in ''Purposive Systems: Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium of the American Society for Cybernetics'', eds. Heinz von Foerster, John D. White, Larry J. Peterson, and John K. Russell, New York, NY: Spartan Books, 1968, pp 1-11. [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/CofC/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/mead.html Excerpt]. 1967 keynote address to the inaugural meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC). Mead had been a participant at the Macy Conferences, while this talk was a defining moment in the development of second-order cybernetics. She characterised "cybernetics as a way of looking at things and as a language for expressing what one sees". This paper was social and ecological in focus, with Mead calling on cyberneticians to assume responsibility for the social consequences of the language of cybernetics and the development of cybernetic systems. [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/CofC/]. See also: [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1108/K-11-2014-0258 Glanville 2015]. [https://www.univie.ac.at/aoc/asc/Periodica/I_1_1968.pdf]
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* Humberto R. Maturana, Francisco J. Varela, ''De máquinas y seres vivos: una teoría sobre la organización biológica'', trans. Carmen Cienfuegos, Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1972; [https://monoskop.org/log/?p=3427 4th ed.], Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1998, 137 pp. {{es}}
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** ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=3427 Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living]'', Dordrecht: Reidel, 1980, 141 pp.
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** ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=3427 Autopoiesi e cognizione: la realizzazione del vivente]'', trans. Alessandra Stragapede, pref. Giorgio De Michelis, Venice: Marsilio, 1985. {{it}}
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** ''De máquinas e seres vivos: autopoiese, a organização do vivo'', Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas, 1997. {{br-pt}}
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* Gordon Pask, Bernard Scott, [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/S0020-7373(73)80008-2 "CASTE: A System for Exhibiting Learning Strategies and Regulating Uncertainties"], ''International Journal of Man-Machine Studies'' 5:1, Jan 1973, pp 17-52. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7373(73)80008-2]
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* Gordon Pask, Bernard Scott, D. Kallikourdis, [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/S0020-7373(73)80002-1 "A Theory of Conversations and Individuals (Exemplified by the Learning Process on CASTE)"], ''International Journal of Man-Machine Studies'' 5:4, Oct 1973, pp 443-566. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7373(73)80002-1]
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* Heinz von Foerster (ed.), ''Cybernetics of Cybernetics, or, the Control of Control and the Communication of Communication'' (BCL Report 73.38), Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 1974; 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN: Future Systems, 1995, 497 pp. A collection of papers by distinguished cyberneticians with graphic commentaries and original texts and definitions composed by students in von Foerster’s “Cybernetics of Cybernetics” seminar.
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* F.G. Varela, H.R. Maturana, R. Uribe, [[Media:Varela_Maturana_Uribe_1974_Autopoiesis.pdf|"Autopoiesis: The Organization of Living Systems, Its Characterization and a Model"]], ''BioSystems'' 5, 1974, pp 187-196.
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* Ernst von Glasersfeld, [[Media:von Glasersfeld Ernst 1974 Piaget and the Radical Constructivist Epistemology.pdf|"Piaget and the Radical Constructivist Epistemology"]], in ''Epistemology and Education'', eds. C. D. Smock and Ernst von Glasersfeld, Athens, GA: Follow Through Publications, 1974, pp 1-24.
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* Gordon Pask, D. Kallikourdis, Bernard Scott, [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1016/S0020-7373(75)80003-4 "The Representation of Knowables"], ''International Journal of Man-Machine Studies'' 7:1, Jan 1975, pp 15-134. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7373(75)80003-4]
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* Gordon Pask, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=2369 Conversation, Cognition and Learning. A Cybernetic Theory and Methodology]'', Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1975, 570 pp.
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* Gordon Pask, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=2374 The Cybernetics of Human Learning and Performance: A Guide to Theory and Research]'', London: Hutchinson, 1975, 347 pp.
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* Ranulph Glanville, ''[[Media:Glanville Ranulph A Cybernetic Development of Epistemology and Observation 1975.pdf|A Cybernetic Development of Epistemology and Observation, Applied to Objects in Space and Time, as Seen in Architecture]]'', Middlesex: Brunel University, 1975, 232 pp. PhD dissertation, supervised by Pask and examined by von Foerster.
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* Gordon Pask, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=2376 Conversation Theory: Application in Education and Epistemology]'', Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1976, 402 pp.
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* Heinz von Foerster, ''Observing Systems'', intro. Francisco J. Varela, Seaside, CA: Intersystems, 1981, xvi+331 pp; 2nd ed, 1984, xviii+331 pp.
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** ''Sistemi che osservano'', eds. Mauro Ceruti and Umberta Telfner, trans. Bernardo Draghi, Rome: Astrolabio, 1987, 243 pp. {{it}}
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* Gordon Pask, Susan Curran, ''Micro Man: Computers and the Evolution of Consciousness'', London: Macmillan, 1982, 222 pp. A “popular” take on the positions that gave rise to Pask’s Conversation Theory.
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* Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, ''[http://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/119932 El árbol del conocimiento: las bases biológicas del entendimiento humano]'', Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1984, 171 pp; [https://pildorasocial.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/autores_humberto-maturana-francisco-varela-el-arbol-del-conocimiento.pdf repr.], Buenos Aires: Lumen, 2003. {{es}}
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** ''[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=3A0401CB7D5DFCDCE0BD435E18373298 The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding]'', trans. Robert Paolucci, forew. J.Z. Young, Boston: Shambhala, 1987, 263 pp; rev.ed., 1998, 269 pp. Develops the understandings that helped form autopoiesis into a more general cognitive and epistemological position and reflection.
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** ''L’albero della conoscenza: un nuovo meccanismo per spiegare le radici biologiche della conoscenza umana'', trans. Giulio Melone, Milan: Garzanti, 1987, 203 pp. {{it}}
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** ''[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=54016ABAE17E47B485B670096B774C81 知恵の樹 : 生きている世界はどのようにして生まれるのか]'', 朝日出版社, 1987. {{jp}}
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** ''L'Arbre de la connaissance: racines biologiques de la compréhension humaine'', trans. François-Charles Jullien with Hélène Trocmé-Fabre, Paris: Addison-Wesley France, 1994, xiv+256 pp.  {{fr}}
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** ''A árvore do conhecimento: as bases biológicas do conhecimento humano'', trans. Humberto Mariotti and Lia Diskin, Campinas: Psy, 1995; repr., São Paulo: Palas Athena, 2004. {{br-pt}}
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* ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=7609 Cybernetic]'', 2 nos., eds. Paul Trachtman (v1), Gordon Pask, Humberto Maturana, Heinz von Foerster, Terry Winograd, and Larry Richards (v2), American Society for Cybernetics, 1985-1986.
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* Ranulph Glanville, ''Objekte. Selected Papers'', trans. Dirk Baecker, Berlin: Merve, 1988, 220 pp. Review: [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322210827 Scott], [http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=BFAD998AAE640E31E55816DDD5B14FBB Scott]. {{de}}
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* Francisco Varela, Evan T. Thompson, Eleanor Rosch, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=3806 The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience]'', MIT Press, 1991, 328 pp; [http://library.memoryoftheworld.org/#/book/217158d5-771a-4241-812c-b162e72b9785 rev.ed.], forew. Jon Kabat-Zinn, MIT Press, 2017, 392 pp.
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* ''Cybernetics and Human Knowing: A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics, Autopoiesis & Cyber-Semiotics'', ed. Søren Brier, Thorverton, UK: Imprint Academic, since 1992. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210180438/http://www.imprint.co.uk/C%26HK/vol1/v1-1for.htm Foreword to first issue]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150210225600/http://www.imprint.co.uk/C&HK/vol1/v1-1ind.htm Issue 1:1]. [https://www.chkjournal.com/ Journal website]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics_and_Human_Knowing]
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* Gordon Pask, [https://monoskop.org/log/?p=342 "Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories"], ''Systems Research'' 13:3, 1996, pp 349-362. Pask's last paper, on his work together with von Foerster and their account of the history of cybernetics.
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* Heinz von Foerster, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=487 Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition]'', New York: Springer, 2003, 362 pp. Incl. [[Media:von Foerster Heinz 2003 Objects Tokens for Eigen-Behaviors.pdf|"Objects: Tokens for (Eigen-)Behaviors"]], pp 261-271.
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* Ranulph Glanville, ''The Black Boox'', 3 vols., Vienna: echoraum, 2009-2013. [http://www.echoraum.at/edition/wisdomechoraum10.htm] [http://www.echoraum.at/edition/wisdomechoraum12.htm]. Review: [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297522988 Baecker] (Constructivist Foundations).
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* Heinz von Foerster, ''[http://library.memoryoftheworld.org/#/book/81184226-ae25-4374-a71c-dfb0c03c234d The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name: Seven Days With Second-Order Cybernetics]'', eds. Albert Mueller and Karl H. Mueller, trans. Elinor Rooks and Michael Kasenbacher, New York: Fordham University, 2013.
  
 
===Historical analysis and review of the impact of cybernetics===
 
===Historical analysis and review of the impact of cybernetics===
 
====In mathematics, engineering and computing====
 
====In mathematics, engineering and computing====
 
; Written by engineers and mathematicians
 
; Written by engineers and mathematicians
* Ya.I. Fet (ed.), ''[http://www.computer-museum.ru/books/cibernetics_hist.pdf Iz istorii kibernetiki]'', Novosibirsk: Geo, 2006, 339 pp. {{ru}}
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* Ya.I. Fet (ed.), ''[[Media:Iz_istorii_kibernetiki_2006.pdf|Iz istorii kibernetiki]]'', Novosibirsk: Geo, 2006, 339 pp. {{ru}}
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* Ranulph Glanville, [[Media:Glanville Ranulph 2009 Second Order Cybernetics.pdf|"Second Order Cybernetics"]], in ''Systems Science and Cybernetics: Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems'', vol. 3, ed. Francisco Parra-Luna, Oxford: Eolss, 2009. [https://cepa.info/2708] [https://books.google.no/books?id=2-VRCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA59]
  
[[Image:Hayles_N_Katherine_How_We_Became_Posthuman_Virtual_Bodies_in_Cybernetics_Literature_and_Informatics.jpg|thumb|258px|N. Katherine Hayles, ''How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics'', 1999. [[Media:Hayles_N_Katherine_How_We_Became_Posthuman_Virtual_Bodies_in_Cybernetics_Literature_and_Informatics.pdf|Download]].]]
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[[Image:Hayles_N_Katherine_How_We_Became_Posthuman_Virtual_Bodies_in_Cybernetics_Literature_and_Informatics.jpg|thumb|258px|N. Katherine Hayles, ''How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics'', 1999, [http://monoskop.org/log/?p=2718 Log], [[Media:Hayles_N_Katherine_How_We_Became_Posthuman_Virtual_Bodies_in_Cybernetics_Literature_and_Informatics.pdf|PDF]].]]
 
; Written by historians and theorists
 
; Written by historians and theorists
 
* James R. Beniger, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=11387 The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society]'', Cambridge University Press, 1986. [http://thecontrolrevolution.com/ Book-inspired website].
 
* James R. Beniger, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=11387 The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society]'', Cambridge University Press, 1986. [http://thecontrolrevolution.com/ Book-inspired website].
* Geof Bowker, "How to be Universal: Some Cybernetic Strategies, 1943–1970", ''Social Studies of Science'' 23:1 (1993), pp 107-127. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/285691]
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* Geof Bowker, [http://sci-hub.tw/https://www.jstor.org/stable/285691 "How to be Universal: Some Cybernetic Strategies, 1943-1970"], ''Social Studies of Science'' 23:1 (1993), pp 107-127.
* Peter Galison, [http://jerome-segal.de/Galison94.pdf "The Ontology of the Enemy: Norbert Wiener and the Cybernetic Vision"], ''Critical Inquiry'' 21:1 (Autumn 1994), pp 228-266. Demonstrates the significance of the war effort of devising a servomechanical shooting device, in which Wiener participated, as a defining moment in the elaboration of the cybernetic model.
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* Peter Galison, [[Media:Galison Peter 1994 The Ontology of the Enemy Norbert Wiener and the Cybernetic Vision.pdf|"The Ontology of the Enemy: Norbert Wiener and the Cybernetic Vision"]], ''Critical Inquiry'' 21:1 (Autumn 1994), pp 228-266. Demonstrates the significance of the war effort of devising a servomechanical shooting device, in which Wiener participated, as a defining moment in the elaboration of the cybernetic model.
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* Jean-Pierre Dupuy, ''Aux origines des sciences cognitives'', Paris: La Découverte, 1994. {{fr}}
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** ''The Mechanization of the Mind: On the Origins of Cognitive Science'', trans. M. B. Debevoise, Princeton University Press, 2000, 240 pp; [http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=BE8F2D5B36F6805F199EC1B4EAFC4F55 new ed.], MIT Press, 2009, 210 pp. A survey of the Macy conferences. [http://web.archive.org/web/20070205052307/http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/ezequiel/dupuy.pdf Review], [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/historyrefs.htm].
 
* N. Katherine Hayles, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=2718 How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics]'', University of Chicago Press, 1999, 350 pp.
 
* N. Katherine Hayles, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=2718 How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics]'', University of Chicago Press, 1999, 350 pp.
* Jean-Pierre Dupuy, ''The Mechanization of the Mind: On the Origins of Cognitive Science'', trans. M. B. Debevoise, Princeton University Press, 2000, 240 pp. A survey of the Macy conferences. [http://web.archive.org/web/20070205052307/http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/ezequiel/dupuy.pdf Review], [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/historyrefs.htm].
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* Slava Gerovitch, [[Media:Gerovitch_Slava_2001_Russian_Scandals_Soviet_Readings_of_American_Cybernetics_in_the_Early_Years_of_the_Cold_War.pdf|"'Russian Scandals': Soviet Readings of American Cybernetics in the Early Years of the Cold War"]], ''The Russian Review'' 60, Oct 2001, pp 545-568.
* David A. Mindell, ''Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, 439 pp. [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/historyrefs.htm]
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* David A. Mindell, ''[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=8884AEA1AEFD154FFE8C82972071E5FD Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics]'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002, 439 pp. [http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/historyrefs.htm]
* Slava Gerovitch, [http://scribd.com/doc/201138190/ "'Russian Scandals': Soviet Readings of American Cybernetics in the Early Years of the Cold War"], ''The Russian Review'' 60 (October 2001), pp 545-568.
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* Andrew Pickering, [[Media:Pickering Andrew 2002 Cybernetics and the Mangle Ashby Beer and Pask.pdf|"Cybernetics and the Mangle: Ashby, Beer and Pask"]], ''Social Studies of Science'' 32:3, Jun 2002, pp 413-437.
 
* David Mindell, Jérôme Segal, Slava Gerovitch, [http://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_word/shannon-wiener.htm "From Communications Engineering to Communications Science: Cybernetics and Information Theory in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union"], in ''Science and Ideology: A Comparative History'', ed. Mark Walker, London and New York: Routledge, 2002, pp 66-96. [http://jerome-segal.de/Publis/science_and_ideology.rtf]
 
* David Mindell, Jérôme Segal, Slava Gerovitch, [http://www.infoamerica.org/documentos_word/shannon-wiener.htm "From Communications Engineering to Communications Science: Cybernetics and Information Theory in the United States, France, and the Soviet Union"], in ''Science and Ideology: A Comparative History'', ed. Mark Walker, London and New York: Routledge, 2002, pp 66-96. [http://jerome-segal.de/Publis/science_and_ideology.rtf]
 
* Slava Gerovitch, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=257 From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics]'', MIT Press, 2004, 383 pp.
 
* Slava Gerovitch, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=257 From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics]'', MIT Press, 2004, 383 pp.
 
* Yongdong Peng, "The Early Diffusion of Cybernetics in China (1929-1960)", ''Studies in the History of the Natural Sciences'', vol. 23, 2004, pp. 299-318. {{zh}} [http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-ZRKY200404002.htm] [http://english.ihns.cas.cn/sp/pb/shns/201011/t20101109_61105.html]
 
* Yongdong Peng, "The Early Diffusion of Cybernetics in China (1929-1960)", ''Studies in the History of the Natural Sciences'', vol. 23, 2004, pp. 299-318. {{zh}} [http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTOTAL-ZRKY200404002.htm] [http://english.ihns.cas.cn/sp/pb/shns/201011/t20101109_61105.html]
* Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, [http://bernardg.com/sites/default/files/pdf/GeogheganHistoriographicConception.pdf "The Historiographic Conception of Information: A Critical Survey"], ''The IEEE Annals on the History of Computing'' 30:1 (2008), pp 66-81.
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* Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan, [[Media:Geoghegan_Bernard_Dionysius_2008_The_Historiographic_Conception_of_Information_A_Critical_Survey.pdf|"The Historiographic Conception of Information: A Critical Survey"]], ''The IEEE Annals on the History of Computing'' 30:1 (2008), pp 66-81.
 
* Mathieu Triclot, ''Le moment cybernétique: la constitution de la notion d’information'', Seyssel: Champ Callon, 2008. {{fr}}
 
* Mathieu Triclot, ''Le moment cybernétique: la constitution de la notion d’information'', Seyssel: Champ Callon, 2008. {{fr}}
 
* Andrew Pickering, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=1531 The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future]'', Chicago University Press, 2010, 526 pp. Renders a history of British cybernetics with only brief excursions into information theory.
 
* Andrew Pickering, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=1531 The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future]'', Chicago University Press, 2010, 526 pp. Renders a history of British cybernetics with only brief excursions into information theory.
 
* Ronan Le Roux, ''Une histoire de la cybernétique en France, 1948-1970'', Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2013. {{fr}}
 
* Ronan Le Roux, ''Une histoire de la cybernétique en France, 1948-1970'', Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2013. {{fr}}
  
====In the social sciences and humanities====
+
[[Image:Heims_Steve_Joshua_The_Cybernetics_Group_1991.jpg|thumb|258px|Steve Joshua Heims, ''The Cybernetics Group'', 1991. [https://monoskop.org/log/?p=19097 Log], [[Media:Heims_Steve_Joshua_The_Cybernetics_Group_1991.pdf|PDF]].]]
* Steve Joshua Heims, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=19097 The Cybernetics Group]'', MIT Press, 1991, xii+334 pp; paperback ed. as ''Constructing a Social Science for Postwar America: The Cybernetics Group (1946–1953)'', MIT Press, 1993. A survey of the Macy conferences and dissemination of information theory outside the natural sciences. Review: [http://sci-hub.bz/10.1177/095269519200500213 Hayles] (HHS), [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13518285-100-review-portrait-of-the-cyberneticists/ Jones] (New Scientist), [http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/HeimsReview.pdf Martínez-Vela].
+
 
 +
====In culture, social sciences and humanities====
 +
* Charles R. Dechert (ed.), ''[[Media:Dechert_Charles_R_ed_The_Social_Impact_of_Cybernetics_1966.pdf|The Social Impact of Cybernetics]]'', Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1966, vi+206 pp. Based on symposium held in Washington, D.C., in Nov 1964. Essays by John Diebold, Robert Theobald, Ulric Neisser, Marshall McLuhan, Hyman G. Rickover, Maxim W. Mikulak, and John J. Ford.
 +
 
 +
* Niklas Luhmann, ''[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=EC654AF85831CC24007001F6F1EBA98C Soziale Systeme. Grundriß einer allgemeinen Theorie]'', Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 1984. Explores second order Cybernetics, self-reference, semiotics, and autopoiesis in the context of social systems. {{de}}
 +
** ''[http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=186DF5B8A52FBDFAEEE79CAE38BA9C8B Social Systems]'', trans. John Bednarz, Jr., with Dirk Baecker, Stanford University Press, 1996, 684 pp. [https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=2225]
 +
 
 +
* Steve Joshua Heims, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=19097 The Cybernetics Group]'', MIT Press, 1991, xii+334 pp; paperback ed. as ''Constructing a Social Science for Postwar America: The Cybernetics Group (1946–1953)'', MIT Press, 1993. A survey of the Macy conferences and dissemination of information theory outside the natural sciences. Review: [http://sci-hub.tw/10.1177/095269519200500213 Hayles] (HHS), [https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13518285-100-review-portrait-of-the-cyberneticists/ Jones] (New Scientist), [http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/HeimsReview.pdf Martínez-Vela].
 
** ''I cibernetici: un gruppo e un'idea'', trans. Gian Marco Fidora, Rome: Riuniti, 1994, xii+387 pp. {{it}}
 
** ''I cibernetici: un gruppo e un'idea'', trans. Gian Marco Fidora, Rome: Riuniti, 1994, xii+387 pp. {{it}}
* Céline Lafontaine, ''L’Empire cybernétique: des machines à penser à la pensée machine'' [The Cybernetic Empire: From Machines for Thinking to the Thinking Machine], Paris: Seuil, 2004. {{fr}}. [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2004/07/RIEMENS/11459 Review].
+
 
* Céline Lafontaine, [http://jerome-segal.de/Lafontaine07.pdf "The Cybernetic Matrix of 'French Theory'"], ''Theory, Culture & Society'' 24:5 (2007), pp 27-46. On the influence of cybernetics on the development of French structuralism, post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy after WWII.
+
* Céline Lafontaine, ''L’Empire cybernétique: des machines à penser à la pensée machine'' [The Cybernetic Empire: From Machines for Thinking to the Thinking Machine], Paris: Seuil, 2004. [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2004/07/RIEMENS/11459 Review]. {{fr}}
* Michael Hagner, Erich Hörl (eds.), ''Die Transformationen des Humanen'', Suhrkamp, 2008, 450 pp. {{de}}. [http://www.suhrkamp.de/download/Blickinsbuch/9783518294482.pdf Contents and Introduction], [http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/die_transformation_des_humanen-_29448.html].
+
* Fred Turner, [https://calamitousannunciation.memoryoftheworld.org/Fred%20Turner/From%20Counterculture%20to%20Cyberculture%20(4177)/From%20Counterculture%20to%20Cybercul%20-%20Fred%20Turner.pdf#page=52 "Stewart Brand Meets the Cybernetic Counterculture"], ch 2 in Turner, ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=1960 From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network and the Rise of Digital Utopianism]'', University of Chicago Press, 2006, pp 41-68.
* Jürgen Van de Walle, "Roman Jakobson, Cybernetics and Information Theory: A Critical Assessment", ''Folia Linguistica Historica'' 29 (December 2008), pp 87-123.
+
* Céline Lafontaine, [http://jerome-segal.de/Lafontaine07.pdf "The Cybernetic Matrix of 'French Theory'"], ''Theory, Culture & Society'' 24:5, 2007, pp 27-46. On the influence of cybernetics on the development of French structuralism, post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy after WWII.
* Ronan Le Roux, [http://www.cairn.info/revue-l-homme-2009-1-page-165.htm "Lévi-Strauss, une reception paradoxale de la cybernétique"], ''L’Homme'' 189 (January-March 2009), pp 165-190. {{fr}}
+
* Michael Hagner, Erich Hörl (eds.), ''Die Transformationen des Humanen'', Suhrkamp, 2008, 450 pp. [http://www.suhrkamp.de/download/Blickinsbuch/9783518294482.pdf Contents and Introduction], [http://www.suhrkamp.de/buecher/die_transformation_des_humanen-_29448.html]. {{de}}
* Lydia H. Liu, "The Cybernetic Unconscious: Rethinking Lacan, Poe, and French Theory", ''Critical Inquiry'' 36:2 (Winter 2010), pp 288-320. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/648527]
+
* Claus Pias, [[Media:Pias Claus 2008 Hollerith Feathered Crystal Art Science and Computing in the Era of Cybernetics.pdf|"“Hollerith ‘Feathered Crystal’”: Art, Science, and Computing in the Era of Cybernetics"]], trans. Peter Krapp, ''Grey Room'' 29, Winter 2008, pp 110-133.
* Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan, [http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/uploads/pdf/Geoghegan,_Theory.pdf "From Information Theory to French Theory: Jakobson, Levi-Strauss, and the Cybernetic Apparatus"], ''Critical Inquiry'' 38 (Autumn 2011), pp 96-126.
+
* Jürgen Van de Walle, [https://sci-hub.tw/10.1515/FLIH.2008.87 "Roman Jakobson, Cybernetics and Information Theory: A Critical Assessment"], ''Folia Linguistica Historica'' 29, Dec 2008, pp 87-123.
 +
* Ronan Le Roux, [http://www.cairn.info/revue-l-homme-2009-1-page-165.htm "Lévi-Strauss, une reception paradoxale de la cybernétique"], ''L’Homme'' 189, Jan-Mar 2009, pp 165-190. {{fr}}
 +
* Bruce Clarke, Mark B.N. Hansen (eds.), ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=9876 Emergence and Embodiment: New Essays on Second-Order Systems Theory]'', Duke University Press, 2009, xiii+296 pp.
 +
* Lydia H. Liu, [https://sci-hub.tw/http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/648527 "The Cybernetic Unconscious: Rethinking Lacan, Poe, and French Theory"], ''Critical Inquiry'' 36:2, Winter 2010, pp 288-320.
 +
* Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan, [http://web.archive.org/web/20170829211753/criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/uploads/pdf/Geoghegan,_Theory.pdf "From Information Theory to French Theory: Jakobson, Levi-Strauss, and the Cybernetic Apparatus"], ''Critical Inquiry'' 38, Autumn 2011, pp 96-126.
 +
* Bruce Clarke, [[Media:Clarke Bruce 2012 From Information to Cognition The Systems Counterculture Heinz von Foersters Pedagogy and Second-Order Cybernetics.pdf|"From Information to Cognition: The Systems Counterculture, Heinz von Foerster’s Pedagogy, and Second-Order Cybernetics"]], ''Constructivist Foundations'' 7:3, 2012, pp 196-207.
 
* Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=9200 The Cybernetic Apparatus: Media, Liberalism, and the Reform of the Human Sciences]'', Northwestern University and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2012, 262 pp. Ph.D. Dissertation.
 
* Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan, ''[http://monoskop.org/log/?p=9200 The Cybernetic Apparatus: Media, Liberalism, and the Reform of the Human Sciences]'', Northwestern University and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2012, 262 pp. Ph.D. Dissertation.
 +
* Bruce Clarke, ''[http://library.memoryoftheworld.org/#/book/b648d771-5566-45c2-932b-a3c6b3993a13 Neocybernetics and Narrative]'', University of Minnesota Press, 2014, 248 pp, [https://aaaaarg.fail/thing/56814d219ff37c0934bcffac ARG]. [https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/neocybernetics-and-narrative]
 +
* Ronald R. Kline, ''[http://library.memoryoftheworld.org/#/book/298c4e4f-079b-4b62-aa3f-bbe8e5f1392c The Cybernetics Moment: Or Why We Call Our Age the Information Age]'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. [https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/cybernetics-moment]
 +
*{{a|DubberlyPangaro2015}}Hugh Dubberly, Paul Pangaro, [http://www.dubberly.com/articles/cybernetics-and-counterculture.html "How Cybernetics Connects Computing, Counterculture, and Design"], in ''Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia'', Minneapolis, MN: Walker Art Center, 2015, [[Media:Dubberly Hugh Pangaro Paul 2015 How Cybernetics Connects Computing Counterculture and Design.pdf|PDF]]. [https://pangaro.com/designconversation/2015/10/how-cybernetics-connects-computing-counterculture-and-design/]
 +
* Liss C. Werner (ed.), ''[https://monoskop.org/log/?p=20177 Cybernetics: State of the Art]'', Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2017, xxvii+173 pp.
 +
* [https://www.leoalmanac.org/cybernetics-revisited/ ''Leonardo Electronic Almanac'' 22(2): "Cybernetics Revisited"], eds. Candice Bancheri, Ashley Daugherty, and Michael Spicher, Jan 2018.
 +
* Ianina Prudenko, ''Kibernetika v gumanitarnykh naukakh i iskusstve v SSSR. Analiz bolshikh baz dannykh i kompyuternoye tvorchestvo'' [Кибернетика в гуманитарных науках и искусстве в СССР. Анализ больших баз данных и компьютерное творчество], Moscow: Garage, 2019, 308 pp. [https://garagemca.org/en/publishing/yanina-prudenko-cybernetics-in-humanities-and-arts-in-the-ussr-big-data-analysis-and-computer-art-by-yanina-prudenko] {{ru}}
 +
* Pamela M. Lee, ''[https://aaaaarg.fail/thing/5ed79c409ff37c65d22e81c6 Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present]'', MIT Press, 2020.
  
 
====In other fields====
 
====In other fields====

Revision as of 13:44, 4 June 2020

Hugh Dubberly, Paul Pangaro, Social graph of cybernetics, 2015. PDF. Interactive version. Article.

A bibliographical genealogy of cybernetics in the United States, France, Soviet Union, and Germany in the 1940s and 1950s, and of second-order cybernetics from 1968, followed by a selected bibliography on its impact across the sciences.

Scientists

Literature

Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, 1948. Download (Second edition, 1965).
Norbert Wiener, "The Machine Age", [1949]. Download (v3).
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, 1950. Download (1989 edition).

Wiener's cybernetics (1948)

  • Norbert Wiener, The Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series, NDRC Report, MIT, February 1942. Classified (ordered by Warren Weaver, then the head of Section D-2), printed in 300 copies. Nicknamed "Yellow Peril". Published in 1949 (see below). Shannon 1948 mentions it as containing "the first clear-cut formulation of communication theory as a statistical problem, the study of operations on time series. This work, although chiefly concerned with the linear prediction and filtering problem, is an important collateral reference in connection with the present paper" (p 626-7). [1], Commentary.
  • Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Paris: Hermann & Cie, 1948; Cambridge, MA: Technology Press, 1948; New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1948, 194 pp; 2nd ed., MIT Press and Wiley, 1961, 212 pp; 1965, PDF; 1980. Reviews: Dubarle (1948, FR), Littauer (1949), MacColl (1950). In the spring of 1947, Wiener was invited to a congress on harmonic analysis, held in Nancy, France and organized by the bourbakist mathematician, Szolem Mandelbrojt. During this stay in France Wiener received the offer to write a manuscript on the unifying character of this part of applied mathematics, which is found in the study of Brownian motion and in telecommunication engineering. The following summer, back in the United States, Wiener decided to introduce the neologism ‘cybernetics’ into his scientific theory. According to Pierre De Latil, MIT Press tried their best to prevent the publication of the book in France, since Wiener, then professor at MIT, was bound to them by contract. As a representative of Hermann Editions, M. Freymann managed to find a compromise and the French publisher won the rights to the book. Having lived together in Mexico, Freymann and Wiener were friends and it is Freymann who is supposed to have suggested that Wiener write this book. Benoît Mandelbrot and Walter Pitts proofread the manuscript. [2]
    • Cibernetica. Controllo e comunicazione nell’animale e nella macchina, Milan: Bompiani, 1953. (Italian)
    • Saibanetikksu: dōbutsu to kikai ni okeru seigyo to tsūshin [サイバネティックス : 動物と機械における制御と通信], Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1957. (Japanese)
    • N. Viner (Н. Винер), Kibernetika, ili upravlenie i svyaz v zhivotnom i mashine [Кибернетика, или Управление и связь в животном и машине], trans. G.N. Povarov, Moscow: Sovetskoe radio [Советское радио], 1958, 216 pp; new ed., 1963; 2nd ed., 1968. (Russian)
    • Cibernética, trans. Miguel Mora Hidalgo, Madrid: Guadiana, 1960, 314 pp; 1971. (Spanish)
    • Kybernetika neboli řízení a sdělování v živých organismech a strojích, trans. O. Hanš, J. Wehle and Z. Wünsch, intro. Karel Winkelbauer, Prague: SNTL, 1960, 148 pp. (Czech)
    • Cibernetica sau Ştiinţa comenzii şi comunicării la fiinţe şi maşini, trans. Alexandru Giuculescu, Bucharest: Ştiinţifică, 1966, 272 pp. (Romanian)
    • Kybernetik. Regelung und Nachrichtenübertragung in Lebewesen und Maschine, rororo, 1968; Econ, 1992. (German)
    • Cibernética ou controle e comunicação no animal e na maquina, São Paulo: Poligono, 1970. (Brazilian Portuguese)
    • Cybernetyka, czyli sterowanie i komunikacja w zwierzęciu i maszynie, trans. Jerzy Mieścicki, Warsaw: Państwowe Wydaw. Naukowe, 1971, 261 pp. (Polish)
    • Kibernetika ili upravljanje i komunikacija kod živih biča i mašina, trans. Nebojša Uzelac and Slobodan Janić, Belgrade: Izdavačko-informativni centar studenata, 1972, 195 pp. (Serbo-Croatian)
    • Sibernetik, trans. İbrahim Keskin, Istanbul: Say Kitap Pazarlama, 1982, 226 pp. (Turkish)
    • Cibernética o el control y comunicación en animales y máquinas, trans. Francisco Martín, Barcelona: Tusquets, 1985, 266 pp; 1998; 2002, 150 pp. (Spanish)
    • Cibernètica, o, Control i comunicació en l'animal i la màquina, trans. Sebastián Xambó Descamps, Barcelona: Edicions Científiques Catalanes, 1986, 280 pp. (Catalan)
    • Kong zhi lun: huo guan yu zai dong wu he ji qi zhong kong zhi he tong xin de ke xue [控制论: 或关于在动物和机器中控制和通信的科学], Zhengzhou : He nan mei zhu chu ban she, 1991. (Chinese)
    • La cybernétique. Information et régulation dans le vivant et la machine, trans. Ronan Le Roux, Robert Vallée and Nicole Vallée-Lévi, Paris: Seuil, 2014, 376 pp. [3] (French)
  • Norbert Wiener, The Extrapolation, Interpolation, and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series with Engineering Applications, Cambridge, MA: Technology Press, 1949; New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1949; London: Chapman & Hill, 1949; 2nd ed., MIT Press, 1966. Earlier printed as a classified NDRC "yellow peril" Report, MIT, 1942. Uses Gauss's method of shaping the characteristic of a detector to allow for the maximal recognition of signals in the presence of noise; later known as the "Wiener filter." Reviews: Tukey (1952).
  • Norbert Wiener, "The Machine Age", [1949]. Unpublished. Written for The New York Times.
  • Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1950; 2nd ed., 1954; London: Eyre and Spottiswode, 1954; New York: Avon Books, 1967; New York: Da Capo Press, 1988; London: Free Association Books, 1989; new ed., 1990.
    • Cybernétique et société, Union Générale d'Éditions, 1952; 1971. (French)
    • Mensch und Menschmaschine, Frankfurt am Main: Metzner, 1952; 4th ed., 1972. (German)
    • Materia, maskiner och människor: cybernetiken och samhället, trans. Edvin Thall, Stockholm: Forum, 1952, 210 pp; new ed., Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1964. (Swedish)
    • Cibernética e sociedade: o uso humano de seres humanos, trans. José Paulo Paes, São Paulo: Cultrix, 1954; 2nd ed., 1968, 190 pp. (Portuguese)
    • Ningen kikairon: Saibaneteikkusu to shakai [人間機械論: サイバネテイックスと社会], Tokyo: Misuzu Shobō, 1954. (Japanese)
    • Kibernetika i obshchestvo [Кибернетика и общество], trans. E.G. Panfilov, Moscow: IIL, 1958, 200 pp. (Russian)
    • Cybernetyka i społeczeństwo, trans. Olgierd Wojtasiewicz, afterw. E. J. Kolman, Warsaw: Książka i Wiedza, 1960, 236 pp; 2nd ed., 1961, 217 pp. (Polish)
    • Kybernetika a společnost, trans. Karel Berka, intro. Arnošt Kolman, Prague: ČSAV, 1963, 216 pp. (Czech)
    • Menneske og automat: kybernetikken og samfundet, trans. Elsa Gress Wright, Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1963, 196 pp. (Danish)
    • Kibernetika i društvo: ljudska upotreba ljudskih bića, trans. Ljubomir Radanović, intro. Rajko Tomović, Belgrade: Nolit, 1964, 244 pp; 2nd ed., 1973. (Serbo-Croatian)
    • Anashim u-moḥot-mekhonah: ha-ḳeberneṭikah ṿeha-ḥevrah, trans. Ivrit Yaḳov Rabi, Tel Aviv: Poalim, 1964, 199 pp. (Hebrew)
    • Cibernètica i societat, intro. Miquel Masriera, trans. Jordi Monés, Barcelona: Ediciones 62, 1965, 214 pp. (Catalan)
    • Introduzione alla cibernetica. L’uso umano degli esseri umani, trans. Dario Persiani, Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1966, 229 pp; 3rd ed., 1970, 240 pp; 1982; 2012, 234 pp. Review. (Italian)
    • Ihmisestä, koneista, kielestä, trans. Pertti Jotuni, Helsinki: WS, 1969, 189 pp. (Finnish)
    • Inimolendite inimlik kasutamine: küberneetika ja ühiskond, trans. Boris Kabur, Tallinn: Perioodika, 1969, 158 pp. (Estonian)
    • Cybernética y sociedad, Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1969. (Spanish)
    • Kyvernētikē kai koinōnia: ē anthrōpinē chrēsimopoiēsē tōn anthrōpinōn ontōn, trans. & intro. Giannē Iōannidē, Athens: Papazēsēs, 1970, xxv+151 pp. (Greek)
    • İnsan ve mekanizması, Istanbul: İTÜ, 1973, vii+148 pp. (Turkish)
    • Ren you ren de yong chu: kong zhi lun he she hui [人有人的用处: 控制论和社 会], trans. Bu Chen, Beijing: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1978; 2009. (Chinese)
    • Cybernética y sociedad, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1984. (Spanish)

Macy Conferences on Cybernetics (1946-1953)

Louis Couffignal, Les machines à penser, 1952.
Raymond Ruyer, La cybernétique et l'origine de l'information, 1954. Download.

Information theory and cybernetics in France (1950s)

  • Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Paris: Hermann & Cie, Cambridge, MA: Technology Press, and New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1948, 194 pp. Review: Dubarle (1948, FR). (see details and other editions above)
  • Dominique Dubarle, "Idées scientifiques actuelles et domination des faits humains", Esprit 9:18 (1950), pp 296-317. (French)
  • Louis de Broglie (ed.), La Cybernétique: théorie du signal et de l'information, Paris: Éditions de la Revue d'optique théorique et instrumentale, 1951, 318 pp. (French). Contributors include physicists and mathematicians Robert Fortet, M.D. Indjoudjian, A. Blanc-Lapierre, P. Aigrain, J. Oswald, Dennis Gabor, Jean Ville, Pierre Chavasse, Serge Colombo, Yvon Delbord, Jean Icole, Pierre Marcou, and Edouard Picault. [7]
  • Norbert Wiener, Cybernétique et société, l'usage humain des êtres humains [1950], Paris: Deux-Rives, 1952; 2nd ed., Paris: 10-18, 1962; 1971. (French) (see other editions above)
  • Louis Couffignal, Les machines à penser, Paris: Minuit, 1952, 153 pp; 2nd ed., 1964, 133 pp. (French)
    • Denkmaschinen, trans. Elisabeth Walther with Max Bense, intro. Max Bense, Stuttgart: Klipper, 1955, 186 pp; 1965. (German)
  • Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 47 (1953). (French). Proceedings of a congress held in Paris in January 1951. Paul Chauchard: the congress was "the first manifestation in France of the young cybernetics, with the participation of N. Wiener, the father of this science." For this congress, organised by the French scientists Louis Couffignal and Pérès, both of whom had visited the U.S. laboratories, and sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, a number of foreigners were invited, including Howard Aiken, Warren McCulloch, Maurice Wilkes, Grey Walter, Donald MacKay and Ross Ashby, along with Wiener who was staying in Paris for a couple of months at the Collège de France. 300 people attended; 38 papers were presented; 14 machines from six different countries were demonstrated. [8]
  • Pierre de Latil, La Pensée artificielle, Paris: Gallimard, 1953. (French)
  • Benoît Mandelbrot, Contributions à la théorie mathématique des jeux de communications, Institut de Statistiques de l'Université de Paris 2, 1953. (French). Ph.D. dissertation in mathematics making a connection between game theory and information theory. He showed for instance that both thermodynamics and statistical structures of language can be explained as results of minimax games between ‘nature’ and ‘emitter’. He also made the connection between the definitions of information given by the British statistician Ronald A. Fisher in the 1920s, by the physicist Dennis Gabor in 1946 and the already well-known definition proposed by Shannon. Mandelbrot was at MIT from 1952-1954 and later at the IAS in Princeton. [9]
  • Raymond Ruyer, La cybernétique et l'origine de l'information, Paris: Flammarion, 1954. (French)
  • G.-th. Guilbaud, La Cybernetique, PUF, 1954. (French)
  • Marcel-Paul Schützenberg, "Contributions aux applications statistiques de la théorie de l’information", Publications de l'Institut de Statistique de l'Université de Paris 3:1-2 (1954), pp 3-117; repr. in Œuvres complètes, Tome 3: 1953-1955, Paris: Institut Gaspard-Monge, Université Paris-Est, 2009, pp 56-161. (French). Ph.D. Dissertation defended at the Faculté des Sciences in Paris in June 1953.
  • Marcel-Paul Schützenberg, "La théorie de l'information", in Cahiers d'actualité et de synthèse, Encyclopédie française, Paris: Société Nouvelle de l'Encyclopédie Française, 1957, pp 9-21. (French)
Liapunov, Kitov, Sobolev, "Osnovnye cherty kibernetiki", 1955. View online.
A.N. Kolmogorov, Teoriya peredachi informatsii, 1956. Download.

Information theory and cybernetics in the Soviet Union (1950s)

  • Claude Shannon (Клод Шеннон), "Statisticheskaia teoriia peredachi elektricheskikh signalov" [Статистическая теория передачи электрических сигналов; The Statistical Theory of Electrical Signal Transmission] [1948], in Teoriya peredakhi elektrikheskikh signalov pri nalikhii pomekh [Теория передачи электрических сигналов при наличии помех], ed. Nikolai A. Zheleznov (А. Н. Железнов), Moscow: Izdatelstvo inostrannoi literatury (ИИЛ), 1953. (Russian). The editor rid the work of the words information, communication, and mathematical entirely, put entropy in quotation marks, and substituted data for information throughout the text. He also assured the reader that Shannon’s concept of entropy had nothing to do with physical entropy and was called such only on the basis of "purely superficial similarity of mathematical formulae". [10]
    • "Matematicheskaya teoriya svyazi" [Математическая теория связи] [1948], trans. S. Karpov, in Raboty po teorii informatsii i kibernetike [Работы по теории информации и кибернетике], Moscow: Izdatelstvo inostrannoi literatury (ИИЛ), 1963, pp 243-332. (Russian)
  • Aleksei Liapunov, Anatolii Kitov, Sergei Sobolev, "Osnovnye cherty kibernetiki" [Основные черты кибернетики; Basic Features of Cybernetics], Voprosy filosofii [Вопросы философии; Problems of Philosophy] 141:4 (August 1955). (Russian). The first Soviet article speaking positively about cybernetics and non-technical applications of information theory, authored by three specialists in military computing—Liapunov, a noted mathematician and the creator of the first Soviet programming language; Kitov, an organizer of the first military computing centers; and Sobolev, the deputy head of the Soviet nuclear weapons program in charge of the mathematical support. They presented cybernetics as a general "doctrine of information", of which Shannon’s theory of communication was but one part. The three authors interpreted the notion of information very broadly, defining it as "all sorts of external data, which can be received and transmitted by a system, as well as the data that can be produced within the system." Under the rubric of "information" fell any environmental influence on living organisms, any knowledge acquired by man in the process of learning, any signals received by a control device via feedback, and any data processed by a computer. [11] [12]
  • A.N. Kolmogorov (А. Н. Колмогоров), Teoriya peredachi informatsii [Теория передачи информации], Мoscow, 1956. (Russian)
  • Igor’ A. Poletaev, Signal: O nekotorykh poniatiiakh kibernetiki, Moscow: Sovetskoe radio, 1958. (Russian). The first Soviet book on cybernetics.

Information theory and cybernetics in Germany (1950s)

  • Nobert Wiener, Mensch und Menschmaschine [1950], trans. Gertrud Walther, Frankfurt am Main: Metzner, 1952, 211 pp; 4th ed., 1972. (German) (see details and other editions above)
  • Louis Couffignal, Denkmaschinen [1952], trans. Elisabeth Walther with Max Bense, intro. Max Bense, Stuttgart: Klipper, 1955, 186 pp; 1965. (German) (see details above)
  • Werner Meyer-Eppler, Grundlagen und Anwendungen der Informationstheorie, Berlin: Springer, 1959, xviii+446 pp; 2nd ed., eds. Georg Heike and K. Löhn, Berlin: Springer, 1969. (German). Reviews: Tamm (1960), Billingsley (1961, EN), Adam (1965).

Second-order cybernetics (1968-1975ff)

  • Margaret Mead, "The Cybernetics of Cybernetics", in Purposive Systems: Proceedings of the First Annual Symposium of the American Society for Cybernetics, eds. Heinz von Foerster, John D. White, Larry J. Peterson, and John K. Russell, New York, NY: Spartan Books, 1968, pp 1-11. Excerpt. 1967 keynote address to the inaugural meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC). Mead had been a participant at the Macy Conferences, while this talk was a defining moment in the development of second-order cybernetics. She characterised "cybernetics as a way of looking at things and as a language for expressing what one sees". This paper was social and ecological in focus, with Mead calling on cyberneticians to assume responsibility for the social consequences of the language of cybernetics and the development of cybernetic systems. [13]. See also: Glanville 2015. [14]
  • Humberto R. Maturana, Francisco J. Varela, De máquinas y seres vivos: una teoría sobre la organización biológica, trans. Carmen Cienfuegos, Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1972; 4th ed., Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1998, 137 pp. (Spanish)
  • Humberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, El árbol del conocimiento: las bases biológicas del entendimiento humano, Santiago de Chile: Universitaria, 1984, 171 pp; repr., Buenos Aires: Lumen, 2003. (Spanish)
    • The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, trans. Robert Paolucci, forew. J.Z. Young, Boston: Shambhala, 1987, 263 pp; rev.ed., 1998, 269 pp. Develops the understandings that helped form autopoiesis into a more general cognitive and epistemological position and reflection.
    • L’albero della conoscenza: un nuovo meccanismo per spiegare le radici biologiche della conoscenza umana, trans. Giulio Melone, Milan: Garzanti, 1987, 203 pp. (Italian)
    • 知恵の樹 : 生きている世界はどのようにして生まれるのか, 朝日出版社, 1987. (Japanese)
    • L'Arbre de la connaissance: racines biologiques de la compréhension humaine, trans. François-Charles Jullien with Hélène Trocmé-Fabre, Paris: Addison-Wesley France, 1994, xiv+256 pp. (French)
    • A árvore do conhecimento: as bases biológicas do conhecimento humano, trans. Humberto Mariotti and Lia Diskin, Campinas: Psy, 1995; repr., São Paulo: Palas Athena, 2004. (Brazilian Portuguese)

Historical analysis and review of the impact of cybernetics

In mathematics, engineering and computing

Written by engineers and mathematicians
N. Katherine Hayles, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics, 1999, Log, PDF.
Written by historians and theorists
Steve Joshua Heims, The Cybernetics Group, 1991. Log, PDF.

In culture, social sciences and humanities

  • Charles R. Dechert (ed.), The Social Impact of Cybernetics, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1966, vi+206 pp. Based on symposium held in Washington, D.C., in Nov 1964. Essays by John Diebold, Robert Theobald, Ulric Neisser, Marshall McLuhan, Hyman G. Rickover, Maxim W. Mikulak, and John J. Ford.
  • Steve Joshua Heims, The Cybernetics Group, MIT Press, 1991, xii+334 pp; paperback ed. as Constructing a Social Science for Postwar America: The Cybernetics Group (1946–1953), MIT Press, 1993. A survey of the Macy conferences and dissemination of information theory outside the natural sciences. Review: Hayles (HHS), Jones (New Scientist), Martínez-Vela.
    • I cibernetici: un gruppo e un'idea, trans. Gian Marco Fidora, Rome: Riuniti, 1994, xii+387 pp. (Italian)

In other fields

  • Donna Haraway, "Signs of Dominance: From a Physiology to a Cybernetics of Primate Society, C.R. Carpenter, 1930-1970", in Studies in History of Biology, Vol. 6, eds. William Coleman and Camille Limoges, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982, pp 129-219.
  • Lily E. Kay, "Cybernetics, Information, Life: The Emergence of Scriptural Representations of Heredity", Configurations 5:1 (Winter 1997), pp 23-91. Cybernetics in genetics. [34]
  • Philip Mirowski, "Cyborg Agonistes: Economics Meets Operations Research in Mid-Century", Social Studies of Science 29:5 (1999), pp. 685-718. Cybernetics in economics.
  • Lily E. Kay, "From Logical Neurons to Poetic Embodiments of Mind: Warren S. McCulloch’s Project in Neuroscience", Science in Context 14:15 (2001), pp 591-614. Cybernetics in neuroscience.
  • Jennifer S. Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Cybernetics in urban planning.

Indirectly related prior work

  • Jacques Lafitte, Réflexions sur la science des machines [Reflections on the Science of Machines], 1911-32.
  • Marian Smoluchowski, "Experimentell nachweisbare, der Ublichen Thermodynamik widersprechende Molekularphenomene", Phys. Zeitshur. 13, 1912. Connecting the problem of Maxwell's Demon with that of Brownian motion, Smoluchowski wrote that in order to violate the second principle of thermodynamics, the Demon had to be "taught" [unterrichtet] regarding the speed of molecules. Wiener mentions him in passing in his Cybernetics (1948) [35].
  • Ştefan Odobleja, Psychologie consonantiste, 2 vols., Paris: Maloine, 1938-39.
  • Hermann Schmidt, general regulatory theory [Allgemeine Regelungskunde], 1941-54.

Resources

Bibliographies

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Studies

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