9783037345986
9783037346075
Distributed for DIAPHANES
Cybernetics
The Macy Conferences 1946-1953. The Complete Transactions
Revised edition
Between 1946 and 1953, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation sponsored a series of conferences aiming to bring together a diverse, interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who would join forces to lay the groundwork for the new science of cybernetics. These conferences, known as the Macy conferences, constituted a landmark for the field. They were the first to grapple with new terms such as information and feedback and to develop a cohesive and broadly applicable theory of systems that would become equally applicable to living beings and machines, economic and cognitive processes, and many scholarly disciplines. The concepts that emerged from the conferences come to permeate thinking in many fields, including biology, neurology, sociology, ecology, economics, politics, psychoanalysis, linguistics, and computer science.
This book contains the complete transcripts of all ten Macy conferences and the guidelines for the conference proceedings. These transcripts are supplemented with an introduction by Claus Pias that charts the significance of the Macy conferences to the history of science.
This book contains the complete transcripts of all ten Macy conferences and the guidelines for the conference proceedings. These transcripts are supplemented with an introduction by Claus Pias that charts the significance of the Macy conferences to the history of science.
Table of Contents
Editorial Note
The Age of Cybernetics
Claus Pias
1949
Participants
Introductory Discussions
The Psychological Moment in Perception
John Stroud
The Neurotic Potential and Human Adaptation
Lawrence S. Kubie
Quantum Mechanical Theory of Memory
Heinz von Foerster
Possible Mechanisms of Recall and Recognition
Sensory Prosthesises
Norbert Wiener
References
1950
Participants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
Frank Fremont-Smith
Introductory Remarks
Warren S. McCulloch
Some of the Problems Concerning Digital Notions in the Central Nervous System
Ralph W. Gerard
The Manner in Which and Extent to Which Speech Can Be Distorted and Remain Intelligible
J.C.R. Licklider
The Redundancy of English
Claude E. Shannon
Experience in Learning Primitive Languages Through the Use of Learning High Level Linguistic Abstractions
Margaret Mead
On the Development of Word Meanings
Heinz Werner
The Development of Language in Early Childhood
John Stroud
The Relationship of Symbolic Function in Language Formation and in Neurosis
Lawrence S. Kubie
Appendix I: Body Symbolization and Development of Language
Lawrence S. Kubie
Appendix II: References
1951
Pariticpants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
A Note by the Editors
Communication Patterns in Problem-Solving Groups
Alex Bavelas
Communication Between Men: The Meaning of Language
Ivor A. Richards
Communication Between Sane and Insane: Hypnosis
Lawrence S. Kubie
Communication Between Animals
Herbert G. Birch
Presentation of a Maze-Solving Machine
Claude Shannon
In Search of Basic Symbols
Donald M. Mac Kay
Appendix I: The Nomenclature of Information Theory
Donald M. Mac Kay
Explanatory Glossary
Alphabetical Index of Terms Used in Information Theory and Related Communication Theory
Appendix II: References
1952
Participants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
A Note by the Editors
The Position of Humor in Human Communication
Gregory Bateson
The Place of Emotions in the Feedback Concept
Lawrence S. Kubie
Homeostasis
W. Ross Ashby
Discrimination and Learning in Octopus
J.Z. Young
Reduction of the Number of Possible Boolean Functions
John R. Bowman
Central Excitation and Inhibition
Ralph W. Gerard
Mechanical Chess Player
W. Ross Ashby
Turbulence as Random Stimulation of Sense Organs
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Investigations on Synaptic Transmission
Walter Pitts
Feedback Mechanism in Cellular Biology
Henry Quastler
Appendix I: References
1953
Participants
Foreword
The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Conference Program
Introductory Remarks
Warren S. Mc Culloch
Studies on Activity of the Brain
W. Grey-Walter
Semantic Information and its Measures
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel
Meaning in Language and How it is Acquired
Yuen Ren Chao
Appendix I: Summary of the Points of Agreement Reached in the Previous Nine Conferences on Cybernetics
Warrant S. Mc Culloch
Appendix II: References
Index
The Age of Cybernetics
Claus Pias
1949
Participants
Introductory Discussions
The Psychological Moment in Perception
John Stroud
The Neurotic Potential and Human Adaptation
Lawrence S. Kubie
Quantum Mechanical Theory of Memory
Heinz von Foerster
Possible Mechanisms of Recall and Recognition
Sensory Prosthesises
Norbert Wiener
References
1950
Participants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
Frank Fremont-Smith
Introductory Remarks
Warren S. McCulloch
Some of the Problems Concerning Digital Notions in the Central Nervous System
Ralph W. Gerard
The Manner in Which and Extent to Which Speech Can Be Distorted and Remain Intelligible
J.C.R. Licklider
The Redundancy of English
Claude E. Shannon
Experience in Learning Primitive Languages Through the Use of Learning High Level Linguistic Abstractions
Margaret Mead
On the Development of Word Meanings
Heinz Werner
The Development of Language in Early Childhood
John Stroud
The Relationship of Symbolic Function in Language Formation and in Neurosis
Lawrence S. Kubie
Appendix I: Body Symbolization and Development of Language
Lawrence S. Kubie
Appendix II: References
1951
Pariticpants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
A Note by the Editors
Communication Patterns in Problem-Solving Groups
Alex Bavelas
Communication Between Men: The Meaning of Language
Ivor A. Richards
Communication Between Sane and Insane: Hypnosis
Lawrence S. Kubie
Communication Between Animals
Herbert G. Birch
Presentation of a Maze-Solving Machine
Claude Shannon
In Search of Basic Symbols
Donald M. Mac Kay
Appendix I: The Nomenclature of Information Theory
Donald M. Mac Kay
Explanatory Glossary
Alphabetical Index of Terms Used in Information Theory and Related Communication Theory
Appendix II: References
1952
Participants
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation Conference Program
A Note by the Editors
The Position of Humor in Human Communication
Gregory Bateson
The Place of Emotions in the Feedback Concept
Lawrence S. Kubie
Homeostasis
W. Ross Ashby
Discrimination and Learning in Octopus
J.Z. Young
Reduction of the Number of Possible Boolean Functions
John R. Bowman
Central Excitation and Inhibition
Ralph W. Gerard
Mechanical Chess Player
W. Ross Ashby
Turbulence as Random Stimulation of Sense Organs
G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Investigations on Synaptic Transmission
Walter Pitts
Feedback Mechanism in Cellular Biology
Henry Quastler
Appendix I: References
1953
Participants
Foreword
The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Conference Program
Introductory Remarks
Warren S. Mc Culloch
Studies on Activity of the Brain
W. Grey-Walter
Semantic Information and its Measures
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel
Meaning in Language and How it is Acquired
Yuen Ren Chao
Appendix I: Summary of the Points of Agreement Reached in the Previous Nine Conferences on Cybernetics
Warrant S. Mc Culloch
Appendix II: References
Index