Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380012731
• ISBN-13: 978-0380012732
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.2 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,696,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book captures the essential aspects of communications., January 15, 1999

By 

[e-mail] Robert M. Stumpf, II (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Paperback)

The purpose of communication is to control our enviornment. In order to communicate effectively, however, it is essential that we consider the feedback we are getting. Alteration of sending messages is the most important aspect of effective communication. That requires that we consider the audience we are talking to and change our message relative to the feedback and the audience. Weiner presents the philosophic arguments for communication. These concepts remain unchanged since the publication of this book in 1954. This is the finest book on theory of communication I have read. Everyone concerned with improving communication should read this thought provoking book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The thermostat of society, March 2, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society (Paperback)

We know the ideal room temperature that we want. There are however all kinds of factors continually changing the room- temperature. We have a means of measuring the temperature continually and making readjustments to keep it steady. The feedback, the report on what is 'happening now in the system' enables us to alter the system to produce the ideal result that we want. This feedback enables us to pilot the system as we want it , and keep it under our control.
So much for the thermostat, feedback, and I believe the basic idea of Norbert Weiner's communications- control world.
But what happens when the ideal result is not agreed upon at the outset? And what happens when the ' measuring' of the system is not a non- ambiguous straightforward matter?
Is it possible that human affairs are so complicated, so informed by what Isaiah Berlin might call 'competing and conflicting ideal ends and values', that a model for their development based on a simple physical analogy is not appropriate? and this even though that model is presented by a very great genius?