An Introduction to Cybernetics

An Introduction to Cybernetics
AuthorW. Ross Ashby
LanguageEnglish
SubjectCybernetics
Published1956
PublisherChapman and Hall
Publication placeEngland

An Introduction to Cybernetics is a book by W. Ross Ashby, first published in 1956 in London by Chapman and Hall.[1][2] An Introduction is considered the first textbook on cybernetics, where the basic principles of the new field were first rigorously laid out.[3] It was intended to serve as an elementary introduction to cybernetic principles of homeostasis, primarily for an audience of physiologists, psychologists, and sociologists.[1] Ashby addressed adjacent topics in addition to cybernetics such as information theory, communications theory, control theory, game theory and systems theory.

A second English edition was published in 1964 by Methuen & Co. with no changes to the original text, alongside the original preface.[3][4]

An Introduction was translated into many languages. Editions were published in Russian and French in 1957, Spanish in 1958, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian in 1959, German in 1965, and Bulgarian and Italian in 1966.[5]

  1. ^ a b Ashby, William Ross (1956). An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman & Hall Ltd. ISBN 9781614277651.
  2. ^ Walter, W. Grey (1957). Ashby, W. Ross (ed.). "Fundamentals Of Cybernetics". The British Medical Journal. 2 (5045): 629. ISSN 0007-1447. JSTOR 25383846. PMC 1962155.
  3. ^ a b Pickering, Andrew (2010). The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 147–149. ISBN 9780226667898.
  4. ^ George, F. H. (1964). "Review of An introduction to cybernetics". Science Progress (1933- ). 52 (208): 697. ISSN 0036-8504. JSTOR 43426682.
  5. ^ Husbands, Phil.; Holland, Owen.; Wheeler, Michael (2008). The mechanical mind in history. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT. ISBN 978-0-262-25638-4.