Between Human And Machine: Feedback, Control, And Computing Before Cybernetics (johns Hopkins Studies In The History Of Technology)
by David A. Mindell /
2002 / English / PDF
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Today, we associate the relationship between feedback, control,
and computing with Norbert Wiener's 1948 formulation of
cybernetics. But the theoretical and practical foundations for
cybernetics, control engineering, and digital computing were laid
earlier, between the two world wars. In
Today, we associate the relationship between feedback, control,
and computing with Norbert Wiener's 1948 formulation of
cybernetics. But the theoretical and practical foundations for
cybernetics, control engineering, and digital computing were laid
earlier, between the two world wars. InBetween Human and
Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics
Between Human and
Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics,
David A. Mindell shows how the modern sciences of systems emerged
from disparate engineering cultures and their convergence during
World War II.
,
David A. Mindell shows how the modern sciences of systems emerged
from disparate engineering cultures and their convergence during
World War II.
Mindell examines four different arenas of control systems
research in the United States between the world wars: naval fire
control, the Sperry Gyroscope Company, the Bell Telephone
Laboratories, and Vannevar Bush's laboratory at MIT. Each of
these institutional sites had unique technical problems,
organizational imperatives, and working environments, and each
fostered a distinct engineering culture. Each also developed
technologies to represent the world in a machine.
Mindell examines four different arenas of control systems
research in the United States between the world wars: naval fire
control, the Sperry Gyroscope Company, the Bell Telephone
Laboratories, and Vannevar Bush's laboratory at MIT. Each of
these institutional sites had unique technical problems,
organizational imperatives, and working environments, and each
fostered a distinct engineering culture. Each also developed
technologies to represent the world in a machine.
At the beginning of World War II, President Roosevelt established
the National Defense Research Committee, one division of which
was devoted to control systems. Mindell shows how the NDRC
brought together representatives from the four pre-war
engineering cultures, and how its projects synthesized
conceptions of control, communications, and computing. By the
time Wiener articulated his vision, these ideas were already
suffusing through engineering. They would profoundly influence
the digital world.
At the beginning of World War II, President Roosevelt established
the National Defense Research Committee, one division of which
was devoted to control systems. Mindell shows how the NDRC
brought together representatives from the four pre-war
engineering cultures, and how its projects synthesized
conceptions of control, communications, and computing. By the
time Wiener articulated his vision, these ideas were already
suffusing through engineering. They would profoundly influence
the digital world.
As a new way to conceptualize the history of computing, this book
will be of great interest to historians of science, technology,
and culture, as well as computer scientists and theorists.
As a new way to conceptualize the history of computing, this book
will be of great interest to historians of science, technology,
and culture, as well as computer scientists and theorists.Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing
before Cybernetics
Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing
before Cybernetics