Cybernetics: Or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Recommended reading: This book had a lasting influence on AI research and is, unfortunately, less known to the general public.
“Artificial Intelligence is highly interdisciplinary. Therefore, let’s approach it in a multidisciplinary & holistic way.” ~ (MINDFUL AI)
Independently of Claude Shannon, Wiener understood communications engineering as a kind of statistical physics and applied this view to the concept of information. In his chapter on “Time Series, Information, and Communication,” Wiener first published his formula for describing the probability density of continuous information. This was remarkably close to Shannon’s formula for discrete-time published in A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948). Cybernetics also contained a chapter on “Computing Machines and the Nervous System.” This was a theoretical discussion, influenced by McCulloch and Pitts, of the differences and similarities between information processing in the electronic computer and the human brain. It included a discussion of the difference between human memory and the various computer memories available. Attached to the end of Cybernetics were speculations by Wiener about building a chess-playing computer, which preceded Shannon’s first paper on the subject.
Cybernetics is a strange, digressive mixture of popular and highly technical writings, ranging from history to philosophy, mathematics, information and communication theory, computer science, and biology. It reflects the astonishing breadth of the author’s interests and represents an interdisciplinary approach to information systems in both biology and machines. It influenced an entire generation of scientists working in a wide variety of disciplines. In it were found the roots of various elements of computer science that split off from cybernetics in the mid-1950s to form separate fields. These different disciplines included information theory, computer learning, and artificial intelligence.
Murat
(Author of the book “MINDFUL AI — Reflection Artificial Intelligence”)
NEW RELEASE — Available on Amazon: MINDFUL AI
