The Cybernetic Brain

Sketches of Another Future

By: Andrew Pickering

Write A Review

Paperback | 15 December 2011 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
536 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.5 x 14.5 x 3.5

Paperback

RRP $65.95

$53.75

18%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $13.44 with

or

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

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.

Industry Reviews

"By focusing on the developments in Britain, Andrew Pickering's The Cybernetic Brain opens wide new vistas for exploring cybernetic practice and its legacy.... As a protean science with connections to psychiatry, theater, music, politics, and counterculture, it was a lot more glamorous and fun than previous accounts of the field would have us believe." (Science)"

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $49.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

More in History

Suicidal Empathy

Dying to Be Kind

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF

The First Inventors

How people shaped a continent

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$29.99

19%
OFF

SIGNED COPY

Stuff the British Stole

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$29.99

19%
OFF

Talking Classics

The Shock of the Old

Hardcover

RRP $36.99

$29.99

19%
OFF

A Kingdom and a Village

A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow

Hardcover

RRP $59.99

$45.75

24%
OFF

Alexander

God, King, Man

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF

Said the Dead

The new book from the award-winning author of A GHOST IN THE THROAT

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF

The Dog's Gaze

A Visual History

Hardcover

RRP $85.00

$61.99

27%
OFF

The Light on the Hill

An Updated History of the Australian Labor Party

Paperback

RRP $55.00

$42.75

22%
OFF

The Shah's Party

And the Iranian Revolution That Followed

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$33.75

16%
OFF

Outside the Wire

On the front line with the SAS in Australia's war in Afghanistan

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$24.99

29%
OFF

Melbourne Coffee Roasters

A History

Hardcover

RRP $59.99

$49.99

17%
OFF

Retro Women

The Evolution of Women

Hardcover

RRP $35.00

$27.75

21%
OFF

The Shortest History of Scotland

Paperback

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF

In Praise of Shadows and Other Essays

Hardcover

RRP $27.99

$24.75

12%
OFF

Rebirth

A Love Story From the Depths of War

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$22.99

34%
OFF

Half of a Yellow Sun

Paperback

RRP $22.99

$20.75

10%
OFF

Men in the Sun

And Other Palestinian Stories

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF

Babylon

The Mother of All Cities, from the critically acclaimed ancient historian and author of The Persians 'Remarkable' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, author of THE GOLDEN ROAD

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF

Days of Love and Rage

A Story of Revolution

Hardcover

RRP $51.95

$40.75

22%
OFF

Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF

The Voynich Manuscript

Hardcover

RRP $82.95

$60.75

27%
OFF

Born in 1956? What else happened? 2024 edition : What else happened? - Ron Williams

$34.75

19%
OFF

Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Adaptive Brain	p. 1
Ontological Theater	p. 17
Psychiatry to Cybernetics
Grey Walter: From Electroshock To The Psychedelic Sixties	p. 37
The Tortoise And The Brain	p. 41
Tortoise Ontology	p. 48
Tortoises As Not-Brains	p. 52
The Social Basis Op Cybernetics	p. 54
Rodney Brooks And Robotics	p. 60
Cora And Machina Docihls	p. 64
Cyber¼netics And Madness	p. 67
Strange Performances	p. 73
Flicker	p. 76
Flicker And The Sixties	p. 76
Biofeedback And New Music	p. 83
Ross Ashby: Psychiatry, Synthetic Brains, And Cybernetics /Si
The Pathological Brain	p. 94
Ashby's Hobby	p. 97
The Homeostat	p. 101
The Homeostat As Ontological Theater	p. 105
The Social Basis Of Ashby's Cybernetics	p. 112
Design For A Brain	p. 115
Dams	p. 122
Madness Revisited	p. 131
Adaptation, War, And Society	p. 139
Cybernetics As A Theory Of Everything	p. 145
Cybernetics And Epistemology	p. 149
A New Kind of Science: Alexander, Kadffman, And Wolfram	p. 156
Gregory Bateson And R. D. Laing: Symmetry, Psychiatry, And The Sixties
Gregory Bateson	p. 173
Schizophrenia And Enlightenment	p. 175
Therapy	p. 179
As Nomad	p. 180
R. D. Laing	p. 183
On Therapy	p. 135
Kingsley Hall	p. 191
Archway	p. 195
Codpled Becomings, Inner Voyages, Aftermath	p. 198
Psychiatry And The Sixties	p. 204
Ontology, Power, And Revealing	p. 210
Beyond the Brain
Stafford Beer: From the Cybernetic Factory to Tantric Yoga	p. 215
From Operations Research To Cybernetics	p. 220
Toward The Cybernetic Factory	p. 223
Biological Computing	p. 231
Ontology And Design	p. 234
The Social basis Of Beer's Cybernetics	p. 237
The Afterlife Of Biological Computing	p. 240
The Viable System Model	p. 243
The Vsm As Ontology And Epistemology	p. 250
The Vsm Ik Practice	p. 253
Chile: Project Cybersyn	p. 256
The Politics Of The Vsm	p. 261
The Political Critique of Cybernetics	p. 264
On Goals	p. 269
The Politics Op Interacting Systems	p. 274
Team Syntegrity	p. 275
Cybernetics And Spirituality	p. 283
Hylozoism	p. 285
Tantrism	p. 290
Brian Eno And New Music	p. 302
Gordon Pask: From Chemical Computers to Adaptive Archictecture	p. 305
Musicolour	p. 313
The History Of Musicolour	p. 317
Musicolour And Ontology	p. 319
Ontology and Aesthetics	p. 321
The Social Basis on Pask's Cybernetics	p. 324
Training Machines	p. 325
Teaching Machines	p. 329
Chemical Computers	p. 334
Threads	p. 336
New Senses	p. 341
The Epistemology Of Cybernetic Research	p. 343
Cas, Social Science, And F-22s	p. 346
The Arts And The Sixties	p. 347
Cybernetic Theater	p. 348
Cybernetic Serendipity	p. 353
The Social Basis Again	p. 361
The Fun Palace	p. 364
After The Sixties: Adaptive Architecture	p. 371
Sketches of Another Future	p. 379
Themes From The History Of Cybernetics	p. 380
Ontology	p. 380
Design	p. 382
Power	p. 392
The Arts	p. 384
Selves	p. 384
Spirituality	p. 385
The Sixties	p. 387
Altered States	p. 387
The Social Basis	p. 388
sketches of Another Future	p. 390
Notes	p. 403
References	p. 479
Index	p. 503
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

The Cybernetic Brain

Sketches of Another Future

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in History

Suicidal Empathy

Dying to Be Kind

The First Inventors

How people shaped a continent

Stuff the British Stole

Talking Classics

The Shock of the Old

A Kingdom and a Village

A One-Thousand-Year History of Moscow

Alexander

God, King, Man

Said the Dead

The new book from the award-winning author of A GHOST IN THE THROAT

The Dog's Gaze

A Visual History

The Light on the Hill

An Updated History of the Australian Labor Party

The Shah's Party

And the Iranian Revolution That Followed

Outside the Wire

On the front line with the SAS in Australia's war in Afghanistan

Melbourne Coffee Roasters

A History

Retro Women

The Evolution of Women

The Shortest History of Scotland

In Praise of Shadows and Other Essays

Rebirth

A Love Story From the Depths of War

Half of a Yellow Sun

Men in the Sun

And Other Palestinian Stories

Babylon

The Mother of All Cities, from the critically acclaimed ancient historian and author of The Persians 'Remarkable' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE, author of THE GOLDEN ROAD

Days of Love and Rage

A Story of Revolution

Abandoned Women : Scottish Convicts Exiled Beyond the Seas

The Voynich Manuscript

Born in 1956? What else happened? 2024 edition

What else happened?

A Concise History of Australia

5th Edition

This product is categorised by