I just wanted to share these two great new articles/translations related to Soviet and Chinese cybernetics.
From Cosmonaut: Soviet Cybernetics: An Introduction - Cosmonaut (cosmonautmag.com)
Featured here is a translation of a work by S.L. Sobolev, A.I. Kitov, and A.A. Lyapunov that represents the first positive coverage of Cybernetics in the Soviet Scientific Press. Accompanied is a preface by Renato Flores and an introduction to the life of Anatoly Kitov, the primary author of the paper.
From Palladium: The Genealogy of Chinese Cybernetics (palladiummag.com)
Qian Xuesen helped China gain nuclear weapons and theorized Dengist cybernetics. Although a brilliant physicist, he made dangerous missteps as an advisor to power.
Both provide some great background on the social reality behind the larger reception to cybernetics at the time.
The Cosmonaut translation was an interesting read. This bit in particular mirrors my own thoughts when it comes to the current "AI" hype cycle (which is already ebbing):
Thus, machines do not and certainly never will replace the human brain, just as a shovel or an excavator does not replace human hands, and cars or airplanes do not replace legs.
We should be careful not to subjectivize machines. Machines do not create value.
I have not read the Chinese text yet.
@thardin i had a statistics professor in college that had a really good quote about this.
"who's faster, you or the computer. the computer. who's smarter, you or the computer. you. every time, you."
i think this is really the crux of what computers do. it seems like when programming something it's like teaching rocks to do magic but really you're just getting a machine to do insanely fast math.
hellou, World!
Павел Городнов, бывший банкир с Краснопресненской гор. Москвы.
Лет 20 назад забыл что такое вторая жизнь в перевоплощении души.
Этим он отвечает, за свои поступки.
Angel God.