<Special Issue: Models> The Transition of Wiener's Conception of Cybernetics from 1942 to 1945

Abstract

Norbert Wiener suggested the interdisciplinary collaboration that was later called cybernetics. Throughout the several meetings he arranged from 1942 to 1945, Wiener gradually changed his views regarding what the key concept of cybernetics should be. In 1943, Wiener emphasized the negative feedback, drawing an analogy between a machine and a human brain. Then, during 1944, the interaction with his collaborator John von Neumann, who built a high-speed computer, led Wiener to focus on control mechanisms. Finally, at the meeting in 1945, Wiener proposed the concept of communication as a common subject of this interdisciplinary research, aiming to connect control engineering with computer engineering