Cybernetics and the Origin of Information

Cybernetics is a hugely important part of the story of the twentieth century, persisting today in our imaginations, science fiction, language, and the stories we tell about ourselves, technology, and the future. While many critical texts and histories came from the US and UK, Ruyer's Cybernetics and the Origin of Information is key to the French story. This English translation opens this world of thought and this pivotal early cybernetic text to a broader audience, filling an incredibly important gap in the history and knowledge of computation. I couldn't be more excited about this essential contribution. Raymond Ruyer writes with remarkable prescience of cybernetics and information theory, anticipating the rise of AI as the formation of a new conceptual as well as material technics. He reveals the force of technology in transforming our lives, as well as its conceptual limits. This is an original critical study of information technologies, as well as a necessary counterbalance to some of its key aspirations to autonomous activity. Raymond Ruyer's Cybernetics and the Origin of Information is not only a necessary read for understanding the history of the reception of cybernetics in France, but also for understanding the evolution of automation up to our time. This original and speculative treatise on information will continue contributing to the development of a philosophy of information in the twenty-first century. Ruyer's Cybernetics and the Origin of Information, in addition to being an important historical document, remains surprisingly relevant to contemporary debates about information technologies. Insisting that information has not one but two dimensions of mechanical transmission and the meaning it has for senders and receivers, Ruyer's analysis sheds light on contemporary debates about whether algorithmic texts can have meaning. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the founding and contemporary periods of cybernetics. This book should be read by anyone interested in cybernetics, information theory, and the philosophy of information. In it, Ruyer critically distances himself from classic approaches to automation and information, which will shape the development of information and communication technologies in the following decades. His philosophical discussion is balanced and insightful, often anticipating much later debates, and when the history of the philosophy of information will be written, Ruyer's work and this book will undoubtedly deserve a chapter. The translators must be congratulated for making this volume available in English, in an accessible and reliable translation. This is a welcome addition to the growing body of Raymond Ruyer's work now available in English translation. Ruyer's critique of the mechanistic theory of information remains as trenchant and timely as it was fifty years ago. His inquiry into information's origin and relation to living systems is especially pertinent to current discussions of the human-digital interface. While we marvel at artificial neural networks and contemplate the disturbing prospects of deep learning technologies, third wave AI is still awaiting a philosophy. Raymond Ruyer's discussion of cybernetics prepares the ground. His metaphysics of form and information offers profound insights for a critical appraisal of today's ongoing revolutions.