The Cybernetics Group
This is the engaging story of a moment of transformation in the human sciences, a detailed account of a remarkable group of people who met regularly from 1946 to 1953 to explore the possibility of using scientific ideas that had emerged in the war years (cybernetics, information theory, computer the...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The MIT Press
2022
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | ONIX_20220221_9780262362757_123 |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1869523684809506816 |
|---|---|
| author | Heims, Steve Joshua |
| author_browse | Heims, Steve Joshua |
| author_facet | Heims, Steve Joshua |
| author_sort | Heims, Steve Joshua |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | This is the engaging story of a moment of transformation in the human sciences, a detailed account of a remarkable group of people who met regularly from 1946 to 1953 to explore the possibility of using scientific ideas that had emerged in the war years (cybernetics, information theory, computer theory) as a basis for interdisciplinary alliances. The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics, as they came to be called, included such luminaries as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Warren McCulloch, Walter Pitts, Kurt Lewin, F. S. C. Northrop, Molly Harrower, and Lawrence Kubie, who thought and argued together about such topics as insanity, vision, circular causality, language, the brain as a digital machine, and how to make wise decisions. Heims, who met and talked with many of the participants, portrays them not only as thinkers but as human beings. His account examines how the conduct and content of research are shaped by the society in which it occurs and how the spirit of the times, in this case a mixture of postwar confidence and cold-war paranoia, affected the thinking of the cybernetics group. He uses the meetings to explore the strong influence elite groups can have in establishing connections and agendas for research and provides a firsthand took at the emergence of paradigms that were to become central to the new fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. In his joint biography of John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, Heims offered a challenging interpretation of the development of recent American science and technology. Here, in this group portrait of an important generation of American intellectuals, Heims extends that interpretation to a broader canvas, in the process paying special attention to the two iconoclastic figures, Warren McCulloch and Gregory Bateson, whose ideas on the nature of the mind/brain and on holism are enjoying renewal today. Steve J. Heims, once a research physicist, has devoted his attention to the history of twentieth century science for the past two decades. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-78603 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publishDateRange | 2022 |
| publishDateSort | 2022 |
| publisher | The MIT Press |
| publisherStr | The MIT Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-786032024-04-04T19:18:42Z The Cybernetics Group Heims, Steve Joshua History of science thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science This is the engaging story of a moment of transformation in the human sciences, a detailed account of a remarkable group of people who met regularly from 1946 to 1953 to explore the possibility of using scientific ideas that had emerged in the war years (cybernetics, information theory, computer theory) as a basis for interdisciplinary alliances. The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics, as they came to be called, included such luminaries as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Warren McCulloch, Walter Pitts, Kurt Lewin, F. S. C. Northrop, Molly Harrower, and Lawrence Kubie, who thought and argued together about such topics as insanity, vision, circular causality, language, the brain as a digital machine, and how to make wise decisions. Heims, who met and talked with many of the participants, portrays them not only as thinkers but as human beings. His account examines how the conduct and content of research are shaped by the society in which it occurs and how the spirit of the times, in this case a mixture of postwar confidence and cold-war paranoia, affected the thinking of the cybernetics group. He uses the meetings to explore the strong influence elite groups can have in establishing connections and agendas for research and provides a firsthand took at the emergence of paradigms that were to become central to the new fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. In his joint biography of John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, Heims offered a challenging interpretation of the development of recent American science and technology. Here, in this group portrait of an important generation of American intellectuals, Heims extends that interpretation to a broader canvas, in the process paying special attention to the two iconoclastic figures, Warren McCulloch and Gregory Bateson, whose ideas on the nature of the mind/brain and on holism are enjoying renewal today. Steve J. Heims, once a research physicist, has devoted his attention to the history of twentieth century science for the past two decades. 2022-02-21T15:13:09Z 2022-02-21T15:13:09Z 1991 book ONIX_20220221_9780262362757_123 9780262362757 9780262082006 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/78603 eng The MIT Press image/jpeg n/a https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2260.001.0001 The MIT Press The MIT Press ae0cf962-f685-4933-93d1-916defa5123d 9780262362757 9780262082006 The MIT Press 348 Cambridge open access |
| spellingShingle | History of science thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science Heims, Steve Joshua The Cybernetics Group |
| title | The Cybernetics Group |
| title_full | The Cybernetics Group |
| title_fullStr | The Cybernetics Group |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Cybernetics Group |
| title_short | The Cybernetics Group |
| title_sort | cybernetics group |
| topic | History of science thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science |
| topic_facet | History of science thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science |
| url | ONIX_20220221_9780262362757_123 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heimsstevejoshua thecyberneticsgroup AT heimsstevejoshua cyberneticsgroup |