The Human Use Of Human Beings

Mar 21, 1988
Paperback
US $15.00
CAN $18.00
UK £10.99
ISBN: 9780306803208
ISBN-10: 0306803208
Published by Da Capo Press

Description

Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cybernetics—the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system—Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact—in effect, a third industrial revolution—that the computer has had on our lives.

Reviews

"It presents cybernetics as a scientific theory and a social philosophy. From the latter standpoint, the writing is often brilliant and forceful..."
— John Pfeiffer, New York Times

"It is hardly possible to read him without being startled to furious and fruitful thinking, moved to deep and reverberating emotion. He is a Jeremiah with the taste and learning of a Renaissance humanist, the free-ranging intellectual gusto of a William James."
— Robert Pick, Christian Science Monitor

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