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Stewart Brand
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II Cybernetic Frontiers Paperback – January 1, 1974

by Stewart Brand (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 4 ratings
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  1. Print length
    95 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    RANDOM HOUSE TRADE @
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1974
  5. ISBN-10
    0394706897
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0394706894
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ RANDOM HOUSE TRADE @; First Edition (January 1, 1974)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 95 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394706897
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394706894
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.2 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

About the author

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Stewart Brand

Stewart Brand

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All 73 years is here:

http://sb.longnow.org/SB_homepage/Bio.html

--SB

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
4 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars full of great ideas, and it will
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016
The first part of this book, the interview with Stewart Brand, is vintage Gregory Bateson, full of great ideas, and it will, I think, be of interest to any real GB fan. A few quotes: "A paradox is a contradiction in which you take sides - both sides." On mind: "...all differences are things of the mind. White paper and black paper. The difference between them is not in the white paper and it's not in the black paper. It's not in the space between them." On climax ecology: "The idea of sanity or health or whatever has got to be somehow related to the whole concept of climax. The definition of pathology then is: those things which destroy climax. They destroy it to the point, where 50 species lived you can now have only five. These pathologies leave a dull world." On experimentation vs. observational evidence: "Suppose you've got an animal whose job in life is to turn over stones and eat the beetles under them. All right, one stone in ten is going to have a beetle under it. He cannot go into a nervous breakdown because the other nine stones don't have beetle under them. But the lab can make him do that you see." And: "The unit of evolution is ideas, it's not organisms."

Don't get the softcover edition, it will fall apart on you.
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S.A.W.
4.0 out of 5 stars Early cybernetic visions
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2006
The booklet looks like a couple of vanity press scientific articles until you actually read it. It's instructive to remember, once you do read it, that it was written while Richard Nixon was still in office, when ARPAnet was getting its bottom spanked on its way out of the Military-Industrial womb, and when computer games were little more than an idea. Brand's interviews with cybernetics pioneers and then-20-something compunauts (now pushing retirement) make clear in retrospect that the age that began in the late 60's is still the one we're in now. The cultural puzzles of deepening computer interaction started *there*. This engaging snapshot of personalities in context, mixed with Brand's pre-2001 spin on what computerization could mean to culture, should be required reading.
2 people found this helpful
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CC
5.0 out of 5 stars Early account of Cybernetics & AI..prescient in many ways.
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2011
"Fascinating account (1974 edition) of cybernetics & early days of AI by Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Catalog, Long Now Foundation etc.).

Early mention of ARPA net's potential is prescient: 'Since huge quantities of information can be computer digitized & transmitted, music researchers could...swap records over the Net with "essentially perfect fidelity." So much for record stores (in present form).'
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast Forward Retro Vision for the Digital Age
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2000
This is one of those books that I've periodically pulled off the shelf again and again over the years. Stewart Brand's journalistic foray into (what was then) pre-Internet, hacker/computer culture shows us the roots/rock/reggae of an earlier generation of programmers and designers who were busy creating a new world minus the hype, marketing and IPO fever. Re-viewing this book over the years since it was first published always gives fresh insight into where we've been.(Gosh nose where we are going.) Worthy of reprinting and rediscovery in the 21st century. Thank you, Mr. Brand...
4 people found this helpful
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