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Start from the horse's mouth, either Wiener's book Cybernetics, or better yet his "layman's introduction", The Human Use of Human Beings. If you're interested
by nanna 5y ago
Start from the horse's mouth, either Wiener's book Cybernetics, or better yet his "layman's introduction", The Human Use of Human Beings.
If you're interested in the history then Ronald Kline's The Cybernetic Moment (John Hopkins, 2015) is the cannonical American history, and Slava Gerovitch's From Newspeak to Cyberspeak (MIT, 2002) is the Soviet. Eden Medina's Cybernetic Revolutionaries (MIT, 2002) covers its role in Allende's Chile, but compared to the US or Soviet this is marginal.
The Cybernetic Hypothesis is a very violent reading, definitely wouldn't recommend as a first port of call.
- jonjacky 5y agoAnother history is Dark Hero of the Information Age: In Search of Norbert Wiener, the Father of Cybernetics by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman, from 2005.
- dogman144 5y agoThanks for the recs both. To your last point, it's an interesting read, and ya something else to start with might be a good call. I found it in sort an alternative book shop (think MIT Press publications that veer more radical, types of books you're stoked can still get published) in a major coastal metro. I was super interested to find a technical-ish book in that setting, so I picked up as I was having trouble finding anyone talking about tech in the way I thought it warranted and hoped this could be it (that aforementioned void). The book's approach to language and arguments (reads like a Camus book, not sure what this style of writing is called though, "academic" doesn't do it justice I think) paired with really clear takes on tech is striking. Maybe intense for a first read though, to your point. Also I'm only halfway through so TBD on what shows up in the second half of it; I might have recommended a wild read haha.