The subject of cybernetics was announced by that name with the publication of Norbert Wiener’s book (Wiener 1948). Of course, there were earlier stirrings including the influential paper of McCulloch and Pitts (1943) and other activity much earlier. A great deal stemmed from Warren McCulloch’s lifelong quest that he epitomised (McCulloch 1960) as the attempt to answer the question: “What is a number, that a man may know it, and a man, that he may know a number?” Rather more concisely, his aim has been expressed as: “understanding man’s understanding”.
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Andrew, A.M. (2009). Cybernetics: Origins and Aims. In: A Missing Link in Cybernetics. IFSR International Series on Systems Science and Engineering, vol 26. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75164-1_1
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