Sciber

"In 1939 Shannon understood that the basis of genetics must be information, and that the information must be coded in some abstract algebra independent of its physical embodiment. Without any knowledge of the double helix, he could not hope to guess the detailed structure of the genetic code. He could only imagine that in some distant future the genetic information would be decoded and collected in a giant database that would define the total diversity of living creatures. It took only sixty years for his dream to come true."

See book review:
How We Know by Freeman Dyson | The New York Review of Books: Review of "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood" by James Gleick

"In 1953, Watson and Crick not only described the double-helix structure of DNA, but also embraced the idea that genes contained a code that expresses information and thereby changed our view of life. This article traces how these ideas entered biological thinking and highlights the connections between different branches of science at the time, exploring the power of metaphor in science." Full article @ Cell


1952 – “Theseus” Maze-Solving Mouse @ cyberneticzoo.com

Labels: cybernetics, information age

Labels: autopoiesis, cybernetics, Heinz Von Foerster

"Cybernetics is one of the most widely misunderstood concepts. The word itself seems sinister and futuristic, but the term has ancient roots – the Greek word kybernetes, meaning steersman. Cybernetics was famously defined in more recent times by Norbert Wiener in 1948, as the science of “control and communication, in the animal and the machine.” Words like "control” may seem to have creepy overtones, but at its heart, cybernetics is simply the study of systems. "Cybernetics is the discipline of whole systems thinking...a whole system is a living system is a learning system," as Stewart Brand put it in 1980. Cybernetic systems have been used to model all kinds of phenomena, with varying degrees of success – factories, societies, machines, ecosystems, brains -- and many noted artists and musicians derived inspiration from this powerful conceptual toolkit. Cybernetics may be one of the most interdisciplinary frameworks ever devised; its theories link engineering, math, physics, biology, psychology, and an array of other fields, and ideas from cybernetics inevitably infiltrated the arts. The musician and producer Brian Eno, for example, was a big fan of connecting ideas from cybernetics to the studio environment, and to music composition, in his work in the 1970s."

Full article @ Rhizone.



P.S. Thanks Artemy for sending this!

Labels: art, cybernetics

Lecture 3 - Systems Theory

Labels: cybernetics, system theory

Lecture 2 - Cybernetics

Some links with materials used in class:

John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer
Computer Architecture by Tim Margush

Labels: Alan Turing, computing, cybernetics, John Von Neumann, Norbert Wiener, Warren McColluch

Lecture 1 - How did we get here?

I also recommend reading the following paper by Prof. Eden Medina, related to her wonderful presentation to the class:

Medina, E. [2006] "Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation: Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile.", Journal of Latin American Studies. 38, 571-606 .

Labels: chile, cybernetics, informatics, Macy Conferences

A bit of history from the American Society for Cybernetics

Labels: cybernetics

"[...]there's another kind of scientist who never breaks through, usually because while his discovery is revolutionary it's also maddeningly hard to summarize in a simple sentence or two. He never produces a catchy hit single. He's more like a back-room influencer: his work inspires dozens of other innovators who absorb the idea, produce more easily comprehensible innovations and become more famous than their mentor could have dreamed. Find an influencer, and you'll find a deeply bitter man. Norbert Wiener -- the inventor of ''cybernetics'' -- is precisely this type of scientist." Full article @
The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'Dark Hero of the Information Age': The Original Computer Geek

Labels: cybernetics, informatics, information age, Norbert Wiener