Kybernetika

This year coincides with the 60-year anniversary of the publication of Norbert Wiener's seminal book: Cybernetics. J. Wiley, New York 1948, in which he introduced, under the name "cybernetic", a host of radically new ideas and views regarding science, engineering, and other areas of human affairs that emerged shortly after World War II. It is thus appropriate for a journal whose title is Kybernetika, the Czech name for cybernetics, to use this anniversary for reflecting on the evolution of cybernetics during the last 60 years. In this essay, which I was invited to write for Kybernetika on this occasion, I intend to express my personal opinion about what I consider the most important ideas of cybernetics from among those suggested and discussed by Wiener in his book. In addition, I intend to trace the evolution of these principal ideas, especially in the United States, since the publication of Wiener's book.