Human and non-human behavior

#1 - Human behavior, yes there is.
#2 - non-human behavior, yes there is also.

To begin - there is a category of human behavior, but many categories of non-human
behavior.  For example, there is the behavior of the wind, the behavior of animals,
behavior of machines, etc.

Because there are so many categories of non-human behavior, it is tempting just
to concede that we all humans should just go ahead and join the " masses " so
to speak.  This would be wrong on many levels.

However, it is often easy for us, to view a particular non-human behavior and
think, maybe we can emulate that.  I think, this is also not particularly wise, and
in fact was of significant concern to Norbert Wiener -  also.

Another example would be good.  The wind blows.  Sometimes it is melodic.
Some human beings blow, like some musicians, but although sometimes you
might prefer the wind - still - what people or humans do does stand apart,
the cause of a lot of meaning and value in our lives.

Finally, there is " Blowing in the Wind " - which is a whole different story.

- H.U.O.H. -

After Dr, Wiener wrote Cybernetics, he was introduced to the idea that, because almost no one could actually understand what he had written, maybe he should write another one that was not quite as math intensive, which he did.


That book is - the Human use of Human Beings.  Interesting thing for me is that you could spend just a lot of time thinking about the title, without ever reading the book.

Moving On:    The book itself is a great deal easier to read of course without the math stuff, but, it is still very challenging.   Cybernetics was the attempt to create a new " field " of science, something like a cross between biology and electrical engineering, I think, but at least in my mind it never " took off " that way.  The word is still around and used from time to time.

What is most interesting about the Human Use of Human Beings is the concern that it contains about the future use of electronic computing machinery, and to be brief - it does not contain a lot of  " how wonderful " that future will be, but very concerned about the effects this equipment would have to societies at large.

But if any generation ever had it's nose into it --- it's this one.

I will get into more of his concern on this - but I wanted to mention one very important concept he brings up - which is - the difference between consistency and truth.   This is a very interesting concept - you can see that in the age of  "systems " this is a big concern - because when a system is created - consistency is one of the " keys " to it being accepted or/and a success.

Now how this relates to truth - becomes very interesting - because quite simply, a system
developed on false premises may be consistent - but not " helpful " in the long term
because it does not produce "honest" results.

Do in fact, systems of this type exist currently ???

  

Norbert Wiener

He wrote the book