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Following his groundbreaking 1948 work 'Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine', which introduced cybernetics both as a term of art and as a new scientific discipline, in 1950 Norbert Wiener went on to publish 'The Human Use of Human Beings', presciently envisioning how automation driven by cybernetic systems could benefit society while also warning of the potential ethical and sociological implications of their adoption and use in the context of the "limits of communication within and among individuals." (Wiener 1950)<br /> | Following his groundbreaking 1948 work ''Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine'', which introduced cybernetics both as a term of art and as a new scientific discipline, in 1950 Norbert Wiener went on to publish ''The Human Use of Human Beings'', presciently envisioning how automation driven by cybernetic systems could benefit society while also warning of the potential ethical and sociological implications of their adoption and use in the context of the "limits of communication within and among individuals." (Wiener 1950)<br /> | ||
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In the intervening seven decades, these cybernetic systems have evolved from their origins as novel academic discourse to become the foundation of the now pervasive digital infrastructure that underpins how contemporary society communicates, transacts, creates and governs. The ubiquity of the interactions between humans and this infrastructure predicates the transhumanist argument that biotechnological augmentation is no longer science fiction but already the everyday lived experience of billions.<br /> | In the intervening seven decades, these cybernetic systems have evolved from their origins as novel academic discourse to become the foundation of the now pervasive digital infrastructure that underpins how contemporary society communicates, transacts, creates and governs. The ubiquity of the interactions between humans and this infrastructure predicates the transhumanist argument that biotechnological augmentation is no longer science fiction but already the everyday lived experience of billions.<br /> | ||