Cybernetics

Between 1946 and 1953 ten conferences under the heading "Cybernetics. Circular, Causal, and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems" were held. Sponsored by Josiah Macy Jr., the so-called Macy Conferences mark perhaps the most important event in the history of science after WW II. Using new terms such as "information", "feedback", and "analogical/digital" as starting point, the participants tried to develop a universal theory of regulation and control, that would be applicable to living beings as well as to machines, to economic as well as to mental processes, and to sociological as well as to aesthetical phenomena. These concepts permeate thinking in such diverse fields as biology, neurology, sociology, language studies, computer science, and even psychoanalysis, ecology, politics, and economy. They marked the epoch-making changes from thermodynamics to cybernetics (Wiener), from the disciplinary to control society (Deleuze), and from the industrial to information society (Lyotard).

The Macy Conferences are of special historical/scientific value since they do not deal with completed texts yet, but rather with interdisciplinary negotiations about an emerging epistemology. This edition contains the complete transcription and protocols of all Macy Conference contributions.

Autorentext

Claus Pias ist Professor für Mediengeschichte und Medientheorie an der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. Zuvor lehrte er in Weimar, Bochum, Essen und Wien. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Technikgeschichte und Medientheorie.

Zusammenfassung

"The result of this breathtaking enterprise was nothing less than a new way of looking at human beings." - N. Katherine Hayles: How We Became Posthuman

Inhalt
9 Editorial Note (Claus Pias) 11 - 26 The Age of Cybernetics (Claus Pias) 29 - 40 Introductory Discussion 41 - 65 The Psychological Moment in Perception (John Stroud) 66 - 97 The Neurotic Potential and Human Adaptation (Lawrence S. Kubie) 98 - 121 Quantum Mechanical Theory of Memory (Heinz von Foerster) 122 - 159 Possible Mechanisms of Recall and Recognition 160 - 162 Sensory Prosthesises (Norbert Wiener) 163 - 164 References (1949) 166 1950. Participants 167 - 168 Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program (1950) (Frank Fremont-Smith) 169 Introductory Remarks (Warren S. McCulloch) 171 - 202 Some of the Problems Concerning Digital Notions in the Central Nervous System (Ralph W. Gerard) 203 - 247 The Manner in Which and Extent to Which Speech Can Be Distorted and Remain Intelligible (J.C.R. Licklider) 248 - 272 The Redundancy of English (Claude E. Shannon) 273 - 290 Experience in Learning Primitive Languages Through the Use of Learning High Level Linguistic Abstractions (Margaret Mead) 291 - 302 On the Development of Word Meanings (Heinz Werner) 303 - 306 The Development of Language in Early Childhood (John Stroud) 307 - 325 The Relationship of Symbolic Function in Language Formation and in Neurosis (Lawrence S. Kubie) 326 - 334 Appendix I: Body Symbolization and Development of Language (Lawrence S. Kubie) 335 Appendix II: References (1950) 338 1951. Participants 339 - 340 Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program (1951) (Frank Fremont-Smith) 341 - 348 A Note by the Editors (1951) (Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber, Heinz von Foerster) 349 - 381 Communication Patterns in Problem-Solving Groups (Alex Bavelas) 382 - 415 Communication Between Men (Ivor A. Richards) 416 - 445 Communication Between Sane and Insane (Lawrence S. Kubie) 446 - 473 Communication Between Animals (Herbert G. Birch) 474 - 479 Presentation of a Maze-Solving Machine (Claude E. Shannon) 480 - 509 In Search of Basic Symbols (Donald M. MacKay) 511 - 523 Appendix I: The Nomenclature of Information Theory (Donald M. MacKay) 525 - 528 Appendix II: References (1951) 530 1952. Participants 531 - 532 Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program (1952) (Frank Fremont-Smith) 533 - 540 A Note by the Editors (1952) (Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber, Heinz von Foerster) 541 - 574 The Position of Humor in Human Communication (Gregory Bateson) 575 - 592 The Place of Emotions in the Feedback Concept (Lawrence S. Kubie) 593 - 619 Homeostasis (W. Ross Ashby) 620 - 628 Discrimination and Learning in Octopus (J.Z. Young) 629 - 633 Reduction of the Number of Possible Boolean Functions (John R. Bowman) 634 - 650 Central Excitation and Inhibition (Ralph W. Gerard) 651 - 653 Mechanical Chess Player (W. Ross Ashby) 654 - 656 Turbulence as Random Stimulation of Sense Organs (G. Evelyn Hutchinson) 657 - 665 Investigations on Synaptic Transmission (Walter Pitts) 666 - 676 Feedback Mechanism in Cellular Biology (Henry Quastler) 677 - 679 Appendix I: References (1952) 682 1953. Participants 683 Foreword (Frank Fremont-Smith) 685 - 686 The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program (1953) (Frank Fremont-Smith) 687 - 688 Introductory Remarks (Warren S. McCulloch) 689 - 696 Studies on Activity of the Brain (W. Grey-Walter) 697 - 706 Semantic Information and its Measures (Yehoshua Bar-Hillel) 707 - 718 Meaning in Language and How it is Acquired (Yuen Ren Chao) 719 - 725 Appendix I: Summary of the Points of Agreement Reached in the Previous Nine Conferences on Cybernetics (Warren S. McCulloch) 727 - 728 Appendix II: References (1953) 729 - 734 Index