Once in a great while a scientific book is published that sets bells jangling wildly in a dozen different sciences. Such a book is Cybernetics (John Wiley; $3) by Professor Norbert Wiener of M.I.T. It bristles with difficult mathematics; its text is a curious mixture of charm and opacity. But for those who can penetrate it (and thousands are trying), the book is intensely exciting.
A new science, says Dr. Wiener, has suddenly appeared. It deals with control mechanisms, and Dr. Wiener has personally named it "cybernetics" from a Greek word meaning "steersman." It is growing like a parasitic fungus, drawing on...
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