With the influential book Cybernetics, first published in 1948,

Norbert Wiener laid the theoretical foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics, the study of controlling the

flow of information in systems with feedback loops, be they

biological, mechanical, cognitive, or social. At the core of Wiener’s theory is the message (information), sent and responded

to (feedback); the functionality of a machine, organism, or

society depends on the quality of messages. Information corrupted by noise prevents homeostasis, or equilibrium. And yet

Cybernetics is as philosophical as it is technical, with the first

chapter devoted to Newtonian and Bergsonian time and the

philosophical mixed with the technical throughout. This book

brings the 1961 second edition back into print, with new forewords by Doug Hill and Sanjoy Mitter. Contemporary readers

of Cybernetics will marvel at Wiener’s prescience—his warnings

against “noise,” his disdain for “hucksters” and “gadget worshipers,” and his view of the mass media as the single greatest

anti-homeostatic force in society. This edition of Cybernetics

gives a new generation access to a classic text.