The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society

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The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society
By Norbert Wiener




&#8226ublisher:  Free Association Books
•Number Of Pages:  208
&#8226ublication Date:  1990-01-01
•ISBN-10 / ASIN:  1853430757
•ISBN-13 / EAN:  9781853430756


Wiener was the founding thinker of cybernetics theory and an influential advocate of automation. Human Use argues for the benefits of automation to society. It analyzes the meaning of productive communication and discusses ways for humans and machines to cooperate, with the potential to amplify human power and release people from the repetitive drudgery of manual labor, in favor of more creative pursuits in knowledge work and the arts. He explores how such changes might harm society through dehumanization or subordination of our species, and offers suggestions on how to avoid such risks.



THE HUMAN USE OF HUMAN BEINGS

This is one of the fundamental documents of our time, a period characterized by the concepts of ‘information’ and ‘communications’. Norbert Wiener, a child prodigy and a great mathematician, coined the term ‘cybernetics’ to characterize a very general science of ‘control and communication in the animal and machine’. It brought together concepts from engineering, the study of the nervous system and statistical mechanics (e.g. entropy). From these he developed concepts that have become pervasive through science (especially biology and computing) and common parlance: ‘information’, ‘message’, ‘feedback’ and ‘control’. He wrote, ‘the thought of every age is reflected in its technique . . . If the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are the age of clocks, and the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries constitute the age of steam engines, the present time is the age of communication and control.’
In this volume Norbert Wiener spells out his theories for the general reader and reflects on the social issues raised by the dramatically increasing role of science and technology in the new age - the age in which we are now deeply and problematically embroiled. His cautionary remarks are as relevant now as they were when the book first appeared in the 1950s. Norbert Wiener (1894- 1964), Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1919 onwards, wrote numerous books on mathematics and engineering. Having developed methods useful to the military during World War Two, he later refused to do such work during the Cold War, while proposing non-military models of cybernetics.

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