>One of the main themes of the present book is the confrontation
between Norbert Wiener and John von Neumann, Wiener embodying the ideas of control, mastery, and design, von Neumann the ideas of complexity and self-organization. Cybernetics never succeeded in resolving the tension, indeed the contradiction, between these two perspectives; more specifically, it never managed to give a satisfactory answer to the problems involved in realizing its ambition of *designing* an autonomous, self-organizing machine.
@Kihbernetics Oh, wow, that’s an enthusiastic recommendation not to read the original ;-) Thanks, I’ll look for the translation then!
@Kihbernetics Thanks, sounds interesting! I’ll check out the original French edition at our library.