The Mechanization of the Mind by Jean-Pierre Dupuy, translated by M. B. De
Bevoise, Princeton, £18.95/£29.95, ISBN 0691025746
CYBERNETICS: we use the word to describe the science of information and
control in humans and machines. Yet it could have been so different. In the
1940s, the term referred to the science of the mind. The idea was thrashed out
at conferences at a New York hotel, sponsored by the Macy Foundation, and held
sway until the early 1950s. From then on, the advent of computing meant that the
riches of a cybernetic theory of mind lost out to today’s…
