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Memories about Norbert Wiener are presented by the author who had the opportunity to meet him in Paris (1951 and 1953), then at MIT and in his country house in New Hampshire in 1954. The foundation of the “Cercle d’Etudes Cybernétiques” is evoked as well as many statements made by Wiener about himself, and his researches on hidden variables in quantum mechanics and other subjects.

Recalls the early life of Norbert Wiener and describes some of the works that initiated the cybernetic movement. Highlights people who influenced Wiener and leads on to who/what Wiener has influenced, and what particular branches of science are offshoots of Wiener’s concepts. Concludes with the thought that the interdisciplinary science of cybernetics has integrated the physical and behavioural sciences and that above all, he will be remembered for this.

Gives an account of Norbert Wiener’s works and how they influenced the author. The seminal Cybernetics or Control and Communications in the Animal and Machine introduces the scientific world to the notion of cybernetics and indeed, according to the author, split it down the middle. Goes on to describe Wiener’s other major works and the impact they had not only on the author but also on other writers, researchers and scientists. Concludes with a brief description of how the author helped Wiener to arrange a European trip in 1964.

Aims to analyse the influence of Norbert Wiener’s ideas on the social sciences and on social systems, including society as a whole. Describes Wiener’s own attitudes regarding the applicability of cybernetics to social systems and his vision on the development of modern society. Highlights sociologists and political scientists who were inspired by his ideas and deals with researchers who tried to apply his ideas to social systems. Concludes by evaluating to what extent specific ideas of Wiener have impacted on the social sciences.

Explores critically the economic thought of Norbert Wiener with special reference to automatization, of which he was the father and philosopher. Considers the concept and theory in economic science and Wiener’s economics as an axiological science. Examines long‐time and short‐time (contest‐free) economic analysis as discussed by Wiener. Further considerations include the analysis of contest and Wiener’s militarology. Automatization is given special reference and Wiener’s analysis is presented and the humane resolution of the problem discussed. Wienierian ideas are further examined and related to the human condition in a final section: The mandate of heaven.

Presents the scientific methodology from the enlarged cybernetical perspective that recognizes the anisotropy of time, the probabilistic character of natural laws, and the entry that the incomplete determinism in Nature opens to the occurrence of innovation, growth, organization, teleology communication, control, contest and freedom. The new tier to the methodological edifice that cybernetics provides stands on the earlier tiers, which go back to the Ionians (c. 500 BC). However, the new insights reveal flaws in the earlier tiers, and their removal strengthens the entire edifice. The new concepts of teleological activity and contest allow the clear demarcation of the military sciences as those whose subject matter is teleological activity involving contest. The paramount question “what ought to be done”, outside the empirical realm, is embraced by the scientific methodology. It also embraces the cognitive sciences that ask how the human mind is able to discover, and how the sequence of discoveries might converge to a true description of reality.

This paper is written in memory of the late Stafford Beer. The paper engages with only one dimension of the whole man: Stafford Beer as the diagnostician and prognostician of the social conditions that he so keenly observed.

The paper revisits a talk that Stafford Beer gave, over three decades ago, to administrators of the UK National Health Service (NHS). It uses the content of the talk, entitled “Health and Quiet Breathing”, to diagnose the problems that have been encountered in the development of NHS information management strategies. The paper concludes with some brief personal recollections of Stafford Beer as a friend and as a teacher.

The paper finds Stafford Beer's managerial cybernetics to be a useful tool in understanding many of the problems that have beset NHS information management strategies: lack of operational research, problems in the commodification of information, financial scandal, and bureaucracy. In its examination of these issues, the paper recognises Stafford Beer's status as a legatee of not only Norbert Wiener but also of the great philosophers.

The paper demonstrates how the problem‐orientation of Stafford Beer's managerial cybernetics continues to be fresh and relevant to today's society and provides a brief portrait of him both as a friend and as a teacher.

When confronted with issues dealing with first and second order cybernetics, it seems that the manner of defining the former has been somewhat caricatured. The second appears to sometimes give rise to conclusions which are almost opposite to those of Wiener by questioning the possibility of a control for a system. We find in Wiener’s research a prefiguration of the autonomy concept, which, in our opinion, could bring an explanation – and a solution – in cases where control elicits some perverse effect; an acceptance of positive feedback if it serves a desired purpose; the central importance held for him by ergodic theory that we use in an addendum on imbalanced strange attractors control; the idea of a knowledge which may be the fruit of the control; an interest for logical paradoxes he put in relation to communication in nervous system; and already the notion of dialogue in the core of the relation man/man or man/machine. Of course, Wiener did not accord an equal development to all his insights, but we have not yet finished scrutinizing his writings. First and second order cybernetics perhaps form an agonistic/antagonistic couple of which neither element could overshadow the other.

One of the most significant features of post‐war engineering has undoubtedly been the rapid growth of automatic control techniques and their widespread application. The importance of this development can be gauged not only by its technical possibilities but also by the fact that it is associated with its own theoretical tools and language with which to re‐examine old problems as well as to study new ones. Closed and open loop systems, feedback, transfer functions, and the use of operational calculus are rapidly becoming familiar elements in the speech and theoretical usage of engineers; and they are being accompanied by important changes in engineering philosophy. The functions of automatic control theory, or cybernetics, as it is sometimes called, were laid by Norbert‐Wiener and his colleagues, who were also responsible for the development of the related subject of Information Theory. An important problem of the latter topic is that of the response of an oscillatory system to a random input disturbance or noise. The successful solution of this problem has again had widespread applications, since essentially the same problem arises in many branches of engineering.

Published posthumously, presented in 1965 at the Wiener Memorial Meeting. Concerned with Norbert Wiener who, while rendering great services to engineering, always remained a pure mathematician. Considers that the principal achievement of Wiener is that he establishes the link between statistical phenomena and the arts of communication and control. Provides examples of Wiener’s method of treating random phenomena and considers it to be very characteristic of his approach to physical problems. Outlines much of Wiener’s works relating to communication and discusses what he believes to be even more important, his contribution to the art of communication. Looks at the relationship of Wiener’s work to Shannon’s, as it was then understood, and to their position in the whole vast field of information theory.