Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind

Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind PDF Author: Kenneth Sayre
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317578562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This book, published in 1976, presents an entirely original approach to the subject of the mind-body problem, examining it in terms of the conceptual links between the physical sciences and the sciences of human behaviour. It is based on the cybernetic concepts of information and feedback and on the related concepts of thermodynamic and communication-theoretic entropy. The foundation of the approach is the theme of continuity between evolution, learning and human consciousness. The author defines life as a process of energy exchange between organism and environment, and evolution as a feedback process maintaining equilibrium between environment and reproductive group. He demonstrates that closely related feedback processes on the levels of the behaving organism and of the organism’s nervous system constitute the phenomena of learning and consciousness respectively. He analyses language as an expedient for extending human information-processing and control capacities beyond those provided by one’s own nervous system, and shows reason to be a mode of processing information in the form of concepts removed from immediate stimulus control. The last chapter touches on colour vision, pleasure and pain, intentionality, self-awareness and other subjective phenomena. Of special interest to the communication theorist and philosopher, this study is also of interest to psychologists and anyone interested in the connection between the physical and life sciences.

Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind

Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind PDF Author: Kenneth Sayre
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317578562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This book, published in 1976, presents an entirely original approach to the subject of the mind-body problem, examining it in terms of the conceptual links between the physical sciences and the sciences of human behaviour. It is based on the cybernetic concepts of information and feedback and on the related concepts of thermodynamic and communication-theoretic entropy. The foundation of the approach is the theme of continuity between evolution, learning and human consciousness. The author defines life as a process of energy exchange between organism and environment, and evolution as a feedback process maintaining equilibrium between environment and reproductive group. He demonstrates that closely related feedback processes on the levels of the behaving organism and of the organism’s nervous system constitute the phenomena of learning and consciousness respectively. He analyses language as an expedient for extending human information-processing and control capacities beyond those provided by one’s own nervous system, and shows reason to be a mode of processing information in the form of concepts removed from immediate stimulus control. The last chapter touches on colour vision, pleasure and pain, intentionality, self-awareness and other subjective phenomena. Of special interest to the communication theorist and philosopher, this study is also of interest to psychologists and anyone interested in the connection between the physical and life sciences.

Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Reissue of the 1961 second edition

Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, Reissue of the 1961 second edition PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262537842
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
A classic and influential work that laid the theoretical foundations for information theory and a timely text for contemporary informations theorists and practitioners. With the influential book Cybernetics, first published in 1948, Norbert Wiener laid the theoretical foundations for the multidisciplinary field of cybernetics, the study of controlling the flow of information in systems with feedback loops, be they biological, mechanical, cognitive, or social. At the core of Wiener's theory is the message (information), sent and responded to (feedback); the functionality of a machine, organism, or society depends on the quality of messages. Information corrupted by noise prevents homeostasis, or equilibrium. And yet Cybernetics is as philosophical as it is technical, with the first chapter devoted to Newtonian and Bergsonian time and the philosophical mixed with the technical throughout. This book brings the 1961 second edition back into print, with new forewords by Doug Hill and Sanjoy Mitter. Contemporary readers of Cybernetics will marvel at Wiener's prescience—his warnings against “noise,” his disdain for “hucksters” and “gadget worshipers,” and his view of the mass media as the single greatest anti-homeostatic force in society. This edition of Cybernetics gives a new generation access to a classic text.

Cybernetics of the Nervous system

Cybernetics of the Nervous system PDF Author:
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080861415
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
Cybernetics of the Nervous system

Success Cybernetics (Unabridged edition)

Success Cybernetics (Unabridged edition) PDF Author: Uell S. Andersen
Publisher: David De Angelis
ISBN:
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Here’s a wonderful new system of self-development based upon the most recent discoveries of the brain sciences and their close relationship to the computer sciences. In this book, U. S. Andersen shows you how your brain and nervous system are under the automatic control of your “Mental Computer”—and gives you scores of “computer instruction” techniques for programming this mental computer to automatically increase your skills and performance in any area you choose! Just as a computer can be programmed, you, too, can rapidly program a “guidance system” and a “power mechanism” into your brain and nervous system—and quickly combine the two into an automatic data processing unit that instantly emits spontaneous success responses to all outside problems. Cramming his book full of true case histories from his own experience in training people, U. S. Andersen gives you a unique approach to solving all your problems . . . handling people more easily . . . and building automatic success habits into your life through mental programming. Within these pages you’ll discover: How to program your mental computer to unleash your greatest potential—under all circumstances and in any situation—and quickly become a winner! How to create a power mechanism that turns on your energies and enthusiasm full blast. How to like yourself—enjoy yourself—while blasting full speed ahead to your targets! How to program the Success Mechanism into your nervous system so that you respond to signals in the same manner as a guided missile. You’ll be astonished at the speed, power and control you’ll develop! How to use programming techniques to constantly improve your skills and abilities, based on a breathtaking, new discovery about how the brain functions! How to “compute” ideas that are productive and useful and put money into your pocket—and how to cast off worthless ideas! How to run your mental data cards through your psychic “scanner” and find quick solutions to unsolvable problems! How to “keypunch” your mental data cards to attract opportunity into your mental computer. Throw luck out the window once and for all. Become a magnet for enterprises that are destined for success! How to operate your mental computer to gain lasting happiness—how to use it to make others happy—how to not only succeed, but how to have fun doing it! . . . plus much, much more! Yes, just as machine “cybernetics” is revolutionizing the technological world, so brain “cybernetics” is revolutionizing the world of man’s performance . . . because it synchronizes your goals with the automatic responses which will achieve them for you. Machine cybernetics already has taken man into outer space. Human cybernetics seems certain to uncover the vast potentials of his inner world—unlocking immense powers of the mind!

Psycho-Cybernetics (Updated and Expanded)

Psycho-Cybernetics (Updated and Expanded) PDF Author: Maxwell Maltz
Publisher: Souvenir Press
ISBN: 1800812930
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The landmark self-help bestseller that has inspired and enhanced the lives of more than 30 million readers. In this updated edition, with a new introduction and editorial commentary by Matt Furey, president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, the original 1960 text has been annotated and amplified to make Maxwell Maltz's message even more relevant for the contemporary reader. Maltz was the first researcher and author to explain how the self-image (a term he popularized) has complete control over an individual's ability to achieve, or fail to achieve, any goal. He developed techniques for improving and managing self-image visualization, mental rehearsal and relaxation which have informed and inspired countless motivational gurus, sports psychologists, and self-help practitioners for more than sixty years. Rooted in solid science, the classic teachings in Psycho-Cybernetics continue to provide a prescription for thinking and acting that lead to life-enhancing, quantifiable results.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics PDF Author: Claus Pias
Publisher: Diaphanes
ISBN: 9783037345986
Category : Cybernetics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Annotation Between 1946 and 1953, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation sponsored a series of conferences aiming to bring together a diverse, interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who would join forces to lay the groundwork for the new science of cybernetics. These conferences, known as the Macy conferences, constituted a landmark for the field. This book contains the complete transcripts of all ten Macy conferences and the guidelines for the conference proceedings.

The Human Use Of Human Beings

The Human Use Of Human Beings PDF Author: Norbert Wiener
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306803208
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cybernetics—the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system—Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact—in effect, a third industrial revolution—that the computer has had on our lives.

The Cybernetic Brain

The Cybernetic Brain PDF Author: Andrew Pickering
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226667928
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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Book Description
Cybernetics is often thought of as a grim military or industrial science of control. But as Andrew Pickering reveals in this beguiling book, a much more lively and experimental strain of cybernetics can be traced from the 1940s to the present. The Cybernetic Brain explores a largely forgotten group of British thinkers, including Grey Walter, Ross Ashby, Gregory Bateson, R. D. Laing, Stafford Beer, and Gordon Pask, and their singular work in a dazzling array of fields. Psychiatry, engineering, management, politics, music, architecture, education, tantric yoga, the Beats, and the sixties counterculture all come into play as Pickering follows the history of cybernetics’ impact on the world, from contemporary robotics and complexity theory to the Chilean economy under Salvador Allende. What underpins this fascinating history, Pickering contends, is a shared but unconventional vision of the world as ultimately unknowable, a place where genuine novelty is always emerging. And thus, Pickering avers, the history of cybernetics provides us with an imaginative model of open-ended experimentation in stark opposition to the modern urge to achieve domination over nature and each other.

Neural Modeling and Neural Networks

Neural Modeling and Neural Networks PDF Author: F. Ventriglia
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483287904
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Research in neural modeling and neural networks has escalated dramatically in the last decade, acquiring along the way terms and concepts, such as learning, memory, perception, recognition, which are the basis of neuropsychology. Nevertheless, for many, neural modeling remains controversial in its purported ability to describe brain activity. The difficulties in "modeling" are various, but arise principally in identifying those elements that are fundamental for the expression (and description) of superior neural activity. This is complicated by our incomplete knowledge of neural structures and functions, at the cellular and population levels. The first step towards enhanced appreciation of the value of neural modeling and neural networks is to be aware of what has been achieved in this multidisciplinary field of research. This book sets out to create such awareness. Leading experts develop in twelve chapters the key topics of neural structures and functions, dynamics of single neurons, oscillations in groups of neurons, randomness and chaos in neural activity, (statistical) dynamics of neural networks, learning, memory and pattern recognition.

Dark Hero of the Information Age

Dark Hero of the Information Age PDF Author: Flo Conway
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780465013715
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Book Description
Two award-winning journalists reveal the epic story of one of the 20th century's most brilliant figures--the eccentric mathematical genius Norbert Wiener, who founded the revolutionary science of cybernetics and then spent his life warning the world about its dangerous human consequences. photos.