Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Reissue of the 1961 second edition (Mit Press) - Softcover

Wiener, Norbert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262537842 ISBN 13: 9780262537841

Publisher: MIT Press, 2019

Synopsis

A classic and influential work that laid the theoretical foundations for information theory and a timely text for contemporary informations theorists and practitioners.

With the influential book Cybernetics, first published in 1948, Norbert Wiener laid the theoretical foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics, the study of controlling the flow of information in systems with feedback loops, be they biological, mechanical, cognitive, or social. At the core of Wiener's theory is the message (information), sent and responded to (feedback); the functionality of a machine, organism, or society depends on the quality of messages. Information corrupted by noise prevents homeostasis, or equilibrium. And yet Cybernetics is as philosophical as it is technical, with the first chapter devoted to Newtonian and Bergsonian time and the philosophical mixed with the technical throughout. This book brings the 1961 second edition back into print, with new forewords by Doug Hill and Sanjoy Mitter.

Contemporary readers of Cybernetics will marvel at Wiener's prescience―his warnings against “noise,” his disdain for “hucksters” and “gadget worshipers,” and his view of the mass media as the single greatest anti-homeostatic force in society. This edition of Cybernetics gives a new generation access to a classic text.

About this title

About the Author

Norbert Wiener (1894–1964) served on the faculty in the Department of Mathematics at MIT from 1919 until his death. In 1963, he was awarded the National Medal of Science for his contributions to mathematics, engineering, and biological sciences. He was the author of many books, including Norbert Wiener―A Life in Cybernetics and the National Book Award-winning God & Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (both published by the MIT Press).

Review

The first publication of Norbert Wiener's Cybernetics marked the big bang of the information age..... But Wiener's inspired principles of cybernetics are not just about technology. They are tools for the mind that can help us grasp and subdue all the complex problems we face today.

―Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman, authors of Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0262537842
• ISBN 13: 9780262537841
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352