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'Cybernetics is the analytic study of the isomorphisms of communication structure in mechanisms,
organisms, and societies' (p. 135). The author traces the development of the non-Newtonian concept of irreversible time-order; statistical physics, and communication engineering. The relevance of time is: 'Cybernetics is concerned with the principles that govern the maintenance of structure in time both within the organism and in its external relations' (p. 138). The relevance of statistics is, according to the author, that communication is temporal and can therefore be regarded as statistical. From this he proceeds to feed-backs, 'information', and analogies between machines and organisms.
After this preparation, the author raises his question of the relation between cybernetics and society. His view is given by: 'It is possible, for example, to re-state a good deal of post-Keynesian economics in terms of a kind of monetary Parkinsonianism. The trade cycle may be regarded as a mechanism with an excessively large feed-back, but I cannot see that there is any real advantage to be gained by the economist in this process, which partakes rather of the nature of a translation than of an analysis' (p. 145); 'I do not believe that a new science is about to develop, but I am convinced that Professor Wiener has established genuine isomorphisms between the brain and nervous structure of calculating and self-correcting automatic machinery'; 'I am very unconvinced that Professor Wiener has been able to establish helpful isomorphisms with society. … On the other hand, I have not the slightest doubt that attempting to think oneself into this new attitude with its new language, makes clearer the nature of a significant number of dynamic social processes' (p. 148). The author considers that cybernetics is not useful where short runs of statistical data are available: 'the small size of the population involved in even the largest human groups and the very large number of var