Men, Machines, and the World About - Norbert Wiener

Men, Machines, and the World About
Norbert Wiener

Key Concepts:

• Cybernetics- Communication and control between the animal and machines
• Communication and control- Synonymous with interactivity; one of the core principals of new media
• Homeostasis- The synchronization control system between two forces using a feedback loop

It's the cybernetic function between humans and machines that we can work to understand, with the hope of gaining some element of control over rapidly expanding technology. Wiener touches on some implications of this expansion which he foresees, most of them being negative, some potentially apocalyptic. He cites the possible instance of Cold War conflict as being a potential catalyst for unchecked technological growth. He warns that humans will be unprepared to deal with the after-effects of this kind of growth once the conflicts have finished. He predicts that a few opportunists could take advantage of the technology to control automated systems which could possible put many people out of work very suddenly, and also give the controller excessive money, power, and control over the population.

Outside of this potential he warns that people might eventually become enslaved to their machines. I'm fairly sure he wasn't talking about the relatively benign type of "enslavement" that we have to machines today, particularly communicative machines like computers and smartphones. I believe that type of control is allowed by humans and is symptomatic rather than determinist, but then again it occurs within the framework of economic, cultural, and social forces, so it happens because of collective action rather than individual action. (my client just emailed me and he knows I have a Blackberry. do I have to reply immediately and shift my focus or can I ignore the interruption and continue whatever I was doing without worrying if he is measuring my response time and benchmarking it against other faster firms)

I still think it's interesting how Wiener states, "We shall have to realize that while we may make the machines our gods and sacrifice man to machines (carpel-tunnel syndrome?) we do not have to so."

I'm right there with you Norbert.