Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine
Norbert Wiener’s book Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948), read in the MIT Press reissue (2019) of the second edition of 1961, whose Part I is headed “Original Edition (1948)”. The 1948 printing was not read.
- Issued by
- No issuing record yet. A missing record is a gap in coverage.
- Authors credited
- Norbert Wiener
- Dates
- Published 1948 authorship evidence
- Exact source
- Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (reissue of the 1961 second edition) Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2019 (open access, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0); Internet Archive item mit_press_book_9780262355902 · published 1948 · Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-02 (SHA-256 88c80833e096c562e62d6519b677966b05d439c00e00cf6fb7dfd8eddb0cbe54) and again at admission on 2026-11-04 (same file). The MIT Press reissue of 2019, catalogued as ‘Reissue of the 1961 second edition’, read in its Internet Archive OCR text. Its contents divide the book into ‘Part I. Original Edition (1948)’ and ‘Part II. Supplementary Chapters (1961)’. The 1961 preface says the first edition had typographical errors and ‘a few errors of content’; the 1948 printing was not compared, so Part I’s wording is attested here from the 2019 reissue only.
Appears in
- Propositions about superintelligence, 1863–2025 →1 record on this document
- Machine succession, scale and acceleration: propositions in located texts, 1863–2026 →1 record on this document
- Economics of machine intelligence: texts from 1952 to 2026 that state, contest or bear on its propositions →1 record on this document
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Issue and authorship records
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Articulates · 1
Propositions whose criterion a passage of this document meets. The record says what the text states, in its register; it is not evidence that the proposition is true.
- Automation lowers the labour share, wages or employmentWiener’s Cybernetics (1948, read in the 2019 reissue) states that the modern industrial revolution is bound to devalue the human brain, at least in its simpler and more routine decisions, and that, taking that revolution as accomplished, the average human being of mediocre attainments or less has nothing to sell that it is worth anyone’s money to buy.1948 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Automation lowers the labour share, wages or employment: propositions page →
Bears on · 2
Propositions a passage comes close to without meeting the criterion; each record names what is missing.
- Competition defeats restraintWiener’s Cybernetics (1948, read in the 2019 reissue) states that those who have contributed to the new science do not have the choice of suppressing its technical developments, and that the most “any of us” can do by suppression is to put the subject into the hands of its most irresponsible and most venal engineers.1948 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Competition defeats restraint: propositions page →
- Machines succeed humans as the leading intelligenceWiener’s Cybernetics (1948, read in the 2019 reissue) says that the new development makes the metaphorical dominance of the machines, as imagined by Samuel Butler, a most immediate and non-metaphorical problem.1948 · publication · Stated in source · Supported Inspect claim & evidence ↗Machines succeed humans as the leading intelligence: propositions page →
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