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An Introduction to Cybernetics

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File:Intro to Cybernetics book cover.jpeg
Book cover of the 1964 edition.

An Introduction to Cybernetics is a book by William Ross Ashby, first published in 1956 in London by Chapman and Hall.[1][2] An Introduction is a textbook, and was intended to serve as an elementary introduction to the new field of cybernetics for biologists and sociologists. It dealt with topics such as information theory and communications theory, control theory, . It is widely seen as a classic, influential text in the field of cybernetics.[3] This work best known for pulling together related fields in information theory and relating them to the (as of then) mostly theoretical field, and providing biological applications of general theories of systems. A second edition was published in 1964 by Methuen & Co. with no changes to the original text, alongside the original preface.[4][5]

Reception

Contents

The Law of Requisite Variety

Influence

References

  1. ^ Ashby, William Ross (1956). An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd. ISBN 9781614277651. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  2. ^ Walter, W. Grey (1957). Ashby, W. Ross (ed.). "Fundamentals Of Cybernetics". The British Medical Journal. 2 (5045): 629–629. ISSN 0007-1447.
  3. ^ Novikov, D. A. (2016). Cybernetics: From Past to Future. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-319-27396-9.
  4. ^ George, F. H. (1964). "Review of An introduction to cybernetics". Science Progress (1933- ). 52 (208): 697–697. ISSN 0036-8504.
  5. ^ Pickering, Andrew (2010). The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 147–149.