Name: The Human Use of Human Beings
ISBN: 9780306803208

The Human Use of Human Beings

"Only a few books stand as landmarks in social and scientific upheaval. Norbert Wiener's classic is one in that small company. Founder of the science of cybernetics--the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system--Wiener was widely misunderstood as one who advocated the automation of human life. As this book reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting. He hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery in order to achieve more creative pursuits. At the same time he realized the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His book examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as he anticipates the enormous impact--in effect, a third industrial revolution--that the computer has had on our lives."--Back cover.

What Hacker News says

cmaMay 2026

I would also recommend God and Golem, Inc., A Comment on Certain Points Where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion:

https://monoskop.org/images/1/1f/Wiener_Norbert_God_and_Gole...

Norbert Weiner was an atheist but he talks about three areas religion is the only thing to have really examined that relate to capable AI: omniscience, omnipotence, and worship (gadget worship). It has very prescient stuff on blackbox learning/distillation, reinforcement learning/reward hacking, alignment through human feedback.

His The Human Use of Human beings and Cybernetics are extremely good too and have more of a mash of the themes between Rerum Novarum and Magnifca Humanitas, and more near-term automation.

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KRAKRISMOTTFeb 2023

Another good one is The Human use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener.

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humanizersequelDec 2022

+1. I always recommend starting with the foundational document, Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener (and the companion title, The Human Use of Human Beings).

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netmonkFeb 2022

This subject is more than 70 years old and profoundly reshaped social control and modern society. I cannot advise more to read all books written by Weiner like "The human use of human beings"

And being in CS indusry sice 25 years im always amazed to state that 99% of people involved in this industry are total ignorant about cybernetic often associated with cyberpunk and scifi

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quinnjhDec 2021

You absolutely have a point- and yes it opposes the other. The other point is valid from a scientific perspective though. I highly recommend you read Norbert Weiners "Cybernetics the human use of human beings" to be able to grapple with the dualism at play. In particular he discusses the manichaean vs augustinian version of evil. He could not reconcile the two but reflecting on the general ways that information leads to effects, and the ontological conflict between "we have free will so its your fault you are oppressed" vs "its not your fault it was engineered to oppress you" - the problem is dual.

Social media platforms are giant algorithmic feedback engines creating the most reliable way for their regular users to fulfill their neuro-chemical and social needs. That these people cannot find better information in their mediasphere means that we need to encourage people and remind them of their agency - yes - but we cannot leave it at "words of encouragement" when the other end is "massive highly personalized feedback loop of all the people you miss seeing"

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nannaSep 2021

Start from the horse's mouth, either Wiener's book Cybernetics, or better yet his "layman's introduction", The Human Use of Human Beings.

If you're interested in the history then Ronald Kline's The Cybernetic Moment (John Hopkins, 2015) is the cannonical American history, and Slava Gerovitch's From Newspeak to Cyberspeak (MIT, 2002) is the Soviet. Eden Medina's Cybernetic Revolutionaries (MIT, 2002) covers its role in Allende's Chile, but compared to the US or Soviet this is marginal.

The Cybernetic Hypothesis is a very violent reading, definitely wouldn't recommend as a first port of call.

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