Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the scienc...
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Dec 18, 2008
DJ
rated it: 
Thoughts on accelerated change, the singularity, neuroscience, evolution, and more from a man who refers to the last decade of the 19th century as "the nineties".
This book is the forerunner to a line of fantastic (yet, at times, exaggerated) works straddling mathematics, machines, and biology, known as the "cybernetics" movement. At times, this book suffers from the same affliction that Akira Kirosawa's films do - they seem cliched and unoriginal to the modern re More...
This book is the forerunner to a line of fantastic (yet, at times, exaggerated) works straddling mathematics, machines, and biology, known as the "cybernetics" movement. At times, this book suffers from the same affliction that Akira Kirosawa's films do - they seem cliched and unoriginal to the modern re More...
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Sep 03, 2009
Ben
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A brilliant, wild little book from a polymath of prodigious proportions, it summarizes his seminal and baffling Cybernetics (1948) and extends an early critique of the information society. Written amid postwar froth, Wiener vaults a theory of communication and control meant to help stabilize any agent (quantum, chemical, biological, human, mechanical, social) into a sweeping philosophically informed lattice of "communal information." A must read for anyone interested in cold war histor
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Mar 25, 2007
Chris
rated it: 
(my review for Amazon)
More than fifty years after its initial publication, this book remains as relevant and prophetic as it is brilliant and exhilarating.
To start, Wiener explains cybernetics in a way that the intelligent layperson can understand; he discusses how human beings, animals, and machines relate to one another through communication and feedback, thus becoming systems that limit or temporarily reverse the universal tendency toward disorganization (entropy). Aft More...
More than fifty years after its initial publication, this book remains as relevant and prophetic as it is brilliant and exhilarating.
To start, Wiener explains cybernetics in a way that the intelligent layperson can understand; he discusses how human beings, animals, and machines relate to one another through communication and feedback, thus becoming systems that limit or temporarily reverse the universal tendency toward disorganization (entropy). Aft More...
Sep 30, 2009
Katelis
rated it:
The first important contribution to cybernetics, maybe laid the foundation of it. A visionist and scientist who tried to merge the Humanities with the information science. He was prodromus of semiotics and of a language theory as the most important keys for the hermeneutics of social and natural phenomena.
Jan 22, 2008
Eileen
rated it:
An important read anyone wanting to understand the relationship between "noise" and feedback in the communication process. Totally agree with Chis´s review, way back in the 50´s Wiener explained, in easy to understand language, fundamental communication processes.
May 15, 2011
J.A.
rated it:
An interesting book that dealt mostly with humanitarianism issues and the use of technology. Covered a lot of things between communications, self-teaching/detecting systems, to the role of scientists and the downfall of (in his day) current scholastic direction.
Oct 21, 2008
I am using this text in a class that I am teaching. So far, it has been good to go back and read it again by installment. I'll add to this post after class in a few weeks.
Jun 23, 2011
Cody
rated it:
The parts that aren't incredibly dated are intriguing, and there's lots of food for thought. Worth picking up if you're interested in sci-fi &c.
Mar 16, 2009
Dan
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Wiener’s discussion relates engineering to a number of issues: game theory, language, biology, consumer economy, social theory, art.
Dec 16, 2009
TK
rated it:
Wiener is one of the greatest thinkers. This book addresses the social dimensions.
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