| Cybernetics as a discipline was firmly established by [[Norbert Wiener]], [[Warren Sturgis McCulloch|McCulloch]], [[Arturo Rosenblueth]] and others, such as [[W. Ross Ashby]], mathematician [[Alan Turing]], and [[William Grey Walter|W. Grey Walter]] (one of the first to build autonomous robots as an aid to the study of animal behaviour). In the spring of 1947, Wiener was invited to a congress on harmonic analysis, held in [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] ([[France]] was an important geographical locus of early cybernetics together with the [[United States|US]] and [[United Kingdom|UK]]); the event was organized by the [[Nicolas Bourbaki|Bourbaki]], a French scientific society, and mathematician [[Szolem Mandelbrojt]] (1899–1983), uncle of the world-famous mathematician [[Benoît Mandelbrot]]. During this stay in France, Wiener received the offer to write a manuscript on the unifying character of this part of applied mathematics, which is found in the study of [[Brownian motion]] and in telecommunication engineering. The following summer, back in the United States, Wiener decided to introduce the neologism ''cybernetics'', coined to denote the study of "teleological mechanisms", into his scientific theory: it was popularized through his book ''[[Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine]]'' (MIT Press/John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1948).<ref name="W1948" /> In the UK this became the focus for the [[Ratio Club]]. | | Cybernetics as a discipline was firmly established by [[Norbert Wiener]], [[Warren Sturgis McCulloch|McCulloch]], [[Arturo Rosenblueth]] and others, such as [[W. Ross Ashby]], mathematician [[Alan Turing]], and [[William Grey Walter|W. Grey Walter]] (one of the first to build autonomous robots as an aid to the study of animal behaviour). In the spring of 1947, Wiener was invited to a congress on harmonic analysis, held in [[Nancy, France|Nancy]] ([[France]] was an important geographical locus of early cybernetics together with the [[United States|US]] and [[United Kingdom|UK]]); the event was organized by the [[Nicolas Bourbaki|Bourbaki]], a French scientific society, and mathematician [[Szolem Mandelbrojt]] (1899–1983), uncle of the world-famous mathematician [[Benoît Mandelbrot]]. During this stay in France, Wiener received the offer to write a manuscript on the unifying character of this part of applied mathematics, which is found in the study of [[Brownian motion]] and in telecommunication engineering. The following summer, back in the United States, Wiener decided to introduce the neologism ''cybernetics'', coined to denote the study of "teleological mechanisms", into his scientific theory: it was popularized through his book ''[[Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine]]'' (MIT Press/John Wiley and Sons, NY, 1948).<ref name="W1948" /> In the UK this became the focus for the [[Ratio Club]]. |
| In the early 1940s [[John von Neumann]] contributed a unique and unusual addition to the world of cybernetics: [[von Neumann cellular automata]], and their logical follow up, the [[von Neumann Universal Constructor]]. The result of these deceptively simple thought-experiments was the concept of [[self replication]], which cybernetics adopted as a core concept. The concept that the same properties of genetic reproduction applied to social [[memes]], living cells, and even computer viruses is further proof of the somewhat surprising universality of cybernetic study. | | In the early 1940s [[John von Neumann]] contributed a unique and unusual addition to the world of cybernetics: [[von Neumann cellular automata]], and their logical follow up, the [[von Neumann Universal Constructor]]. The result of these deceptively simple thought-experiments was the concept of [[self replication]], which cybernetics adopted as a core concept. The concept that the same properties of genetic reproduction applied to social [[memes]], living cells, and even computer viruses is further proof of the somewhat surprising universality of cybernetic study. |