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Rise of the Machines

by Thomas Rid

Science & TechnologyHistory

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Thomas Rid traces the history of cybernetics—the science of communication and control—and its unexpected influence on counterculture, military thinking, and digital utopianism. The term was coined by Norbert Wiener in 1948, but Rid follows the idea through the Cold War, when cybernetic concepts shaped both Pentagon planning and hippie communes. The Whole Earth Catalog drew on cybernetic thinking about systems and feedback; so did RAND Corporation's nuclear strategists. Rid shows how these apparently opposed groups shared assumptions about information, organization, and possibility. The book traces how cybernetic ideas influenced the personal computer revolution, the emergence of virtual reality, and debates about artificial intelligence. Rid examines crypto-anarchists who believed technology would make governments obsolete and military thinkers who saw cyberspace as a new domain for conflict. The result is intellectual history that illuminates contemporary debates about technology, society, and the possibilities of digital transformation.

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