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Avec un “s”: histories of cybernetics and the ASC

Albert Müller (Department of Contemporary History, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.)

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 7 September 2015

197

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to target the problem of awareness of the history of cybernetics as a field with different actors inside and outside cybernetics. It provides a short overview on research and literature during the last two decades and pleads for a multiplicity of historical views.

Design/methodology/approach

Historical research, review of literature.

Findings

While it can be found that there was a growing historical interest in cybernetics, this cannot be claimed for the history of the American Society of Cybernetics (ASC) as an organization and a productive network. One reason seems to be the lack of archival sources. The article provides a proposal to reconstruct such an archive for the history of the ASC.

Originality/value

Stimulation of historical awareness for and in cybernetics.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his gratitude to the editors for their patience, to two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions and to Camilla R. Nielsen for her help during the revision of this paper.

Citation

Müller, A. (2015), "Avec un “s”: histories of cybernetics and the ASC", Kybernetes, Vol. 44 No. 8/9, pp. 1341-1349. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-11-2014-0237

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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