IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 81

T

he concept of "information"
is now so all-pervasive that
few turn their attention to
the origin and (initially slow)
evolution of the concept as
a basic element in science,
technology, computing, and
even, these days, the social sciences and humanities. Indeed, anyone who considers the development of the notion of information is likely
to be restricted to a few great names such as
Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener, or the famous series of Macy Conferences on cybernetics, systems thinking, and related topics. Yet
there is a fascinating, and rarely told, pre-history. This paper considers early attempts by German scholars at viewing individuals and societies from what, in retrospect, can be considered
an information point of view. Specific areas examined by such scholars are the dilation of the
pupil of the eye, a general "proto-cybernetic" approach to the human body, and feedback in organisms and the state. Such early work was not
widely known by later German cyberneticists of
the 1940s onwards, but it gradually came to inform their ideas: see in particular Henn [1].
Early work by biologists and others taking a
much broader view of their subject did not form a
coherent whole. In addition to those German scholars discussed below who drew attention to the specific links between feedback, biology, and society, a
number of other contributors are worth briefly mentioning. In 1917, for example, the Scottish mathematical biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
wrote On Growth and Form, while Jan Smuts, who
had academic interests as well as a military and
political career, produced Holism and Evolution in
1927. As far as German thinkers are concerned,
Franz Kröner wrote The Anarchy of Philosophical
Systems in 1929, while the even earlier Johann
Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777) and Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) are also considered
by many in the German-speaking areas to have
contributed to early notions of systems thinking.

DECEMBER 2017

∕

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

81



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - Cover1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - Cover2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 1
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 2
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 4
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 5
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 6
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 7
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 8
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 9
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 10
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 11
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 12
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 13
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 14
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 15
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 16
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 17
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 18
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 19
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 20
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 22
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 23
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 24
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 25
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 26
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 27
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 28
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 29
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 30
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 31
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 32
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 33
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 34
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 35
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 36
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 37
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 38
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 39
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 40
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 41
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 42
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 43
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 44
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 45
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 46
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 47
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 48
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 49
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 50
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 51
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 52
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 53
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 54
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 55
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 56
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 57
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 58
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 59
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 60
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 61
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 62
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 63
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 64
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 65
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 66
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 67
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 68
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 69
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 70
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 71
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 72
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 73
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 74
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 75
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 76
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 77
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 78
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 79
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 80
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 81
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 82
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 83
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 84
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 85
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 86
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 87
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 88
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - Cover3
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2020
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2019
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_december2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_september2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_june2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_march2018
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2017
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2016
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2015
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2014
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_winter2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_fall2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_summer2013
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ieee/technologysociety_spring2013
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com