The History of Cybernetics: Ashby, Beer and Pask

控制论的历史：阿什比、比尔和帕斯克

• 批准号: 0094504
• 负责人: Andrew Pickering
• 金额: $ 8.55万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-11-01 至 2003-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0094504&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: History; Cybernetics; Ashby; Beer; Pask

ABSTRACT: SES 00-94504Andrew PickeringThe History Of Cybernetics: Ashby, Beer And PaskCybernetics increasingly commands serious interest amongst historians of science, in part,no doubt, because of a sense that it has sought to grasp the world in an interestingly different way from the more familiar natural and social sciences-holistically rather thanreductively, to put it crudely. Most historical interest has focussed on the WorldWar II founders of cybernetics-Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, WarrenMcCulloch, Claude Shannon-and the series of Macy conferences (1946-53) in whichtheir views were propagated. And most attention has been paid to the conceptualsingularity of cybernetics-cybernetics as a theory of negative feedback and control, or asa world-view or ideology.This project extends our understanding of the substance and history of cybernetics alongseveral axes. First, it examines new characters and a later period. Based on research over the past couple of years, the PI believes that some of the most fascinating and original work in cybernetics was done from the early 1950s onwards by a group of British scientists-foremost amongst them W. Ross Ashby, Stafford Beer and Gordon Pask. Second, while I am, of course, interested in the ideas of these men, I am also interested in what they did-the practice of cybernetics, a largely unexplored topic. This leads, third, into the material stratum of cybernetics. Like Wiener's before them, the cybernetics of the English group referred directly to a constellation of fascinating material systems and artefacts. The singularity of cybernetics, the PI argues, resides at least as much at this level as it does at the level of ideas. The interest in practice also leads, fourth, into the social structure of cybernetics. We are familiar with the usual academic/disciplinary centering of the traditional sciences, but cybernetics was not like that. The cyberneticians have typically been wanderers or vagrants, moving readily between institutional bases that we generally think of as distinct, including the university, but also the arts, business, industry and the military. This social level constitutes another, hitherto not well recognised, aspect of the singularity of cybernetics. This proposal for a sabbatical year supports preparation of a book on the Britishcyberneticians, especially the research on Beer and Pask. (The PI's a graduate student is already working intensively on Ashby). Key informants have agreed to be interviewed and furnish documents in their possession. The book seeks to emphasise that, in its specific entanglements of the material, social and conceptual, cybernetics was a different kind of historical formation from the reductive sciences-a new and fascinating kind of object for study by the STS community that may increasingly command much wider scholarly and popular interest. Certain theoretical concerns of the PI go along with his interest in cybernetics, which he intends to open up in the last chapter of the book by locating cybernetics within a larger body of cognate work, including current work on 'complexity' and his own work on the 'mangle of practice.' The project contributes significantly to theoretical discussions within and beyond science and technology studies. The PI also explores the relevance of such discussions for contemporary work in artificial intelligence, information technology and cognitive science.

摘要：控制论越来越引起科学史家的浓厚兴趣，毫无疑问，部分原因是因为它试图以一种与我们更熟悉的自然科学和社会科学截然不同的有趣方式来把握世界--粗略地说，是从整体上而不是从还原上把握世界。大多数的历史兴趣集中在第二次世界大战的控制论的创始人诺伯特维纳，约翰冯诺依曼，沃伦麦卡洛克，克劳德香农和一系列的梅西会议（1946年至1953年），他们的观点在其中传播。控制论作为一种负反馈和控制的理论，或者阿萨世界观或意识形态，这一项目沿着几个轴扩展了我们对控制论的实质和历史的理解。首先，它考察了新的人物和后期。根据过去几年的研究，PI认为，控制论中一些最迷人和最原始的工作是由一群英国科学家从20世纪50年代初开始完成的，其中最重要的是W。罗斯·阿什比，斯塔福德·比尔和戈登·帕斯克。第二，当然，我对这些人的思想感兴趣，我也对他们所做的事情感兴趣控制论的实践，一个很大程度上未被探索的话题。第三，这就引出了控制论的物质层面。就像之前的维纳一样，英国学派的控制论直接涉及一系列迷人的物质系统和人工制品。PI认为，控制论的奇点至少在这个层面上与在思想层面上一样多。第四，对实践的兴趣也导致了控制论的社会结构。我们熟悉传统科学通常的学术/学科中心，但控制论不是这样的。控制论家通常是流浪者或流浪者，在我们通常认为不同的机构基础之间移动，包括大学，但也包括艺术，商业，工业和军队。这一社会层次构成了控制论奇点的另一个迄今尚未得到充分认识的方面。这个休假一年的建议支持准备一本关于英国控制论家的书，特别是对啤酒和帕斯克的研究。 (The PI的一个研究生已经在阿什比密集工作）。关键的线人同意接受采访并提供他们所拥有的文件。 这本书旨在强调，在其具体的纠缠的材料，社会和概念，控制论是一种不同的历史形成从还原科学一种新的和迷人的一种对象的研究，由STS社区，可能会越来越多地命令更广泛的学术和流行的兴趣。 PI的某些理论关注与他对控制论的兴趣沿着，他打算在本书的最后一章通过将控制论定位在更大的同源工作中来展开，包括当前关于“复杂性”的工作和他自己关于“实践的混乱”的工作。“该项目对科学和技术研究内外的理论讨论做出了重大贡献。 PI还探讨了这种讨论对人工智能，信息技术和认知科学当代工作的相关性。