Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine by Norbert Wiener

Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine by Norbert Wiener

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.

Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) was a member of the MIT Department of Mathematics faculty from 1919 until his death in 1964. For his contributions to mathematics, engineering, and biological sciences, he received the National Medal of Science in 1963. He wrote many works, including Norbert Wiener--A Life in Cybernetics and God & Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Some Areas Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion (both published by the MIT Press), which won the National Book Prize.