118 Joint Cognitive Systems
no automation-induced problems; i.e., operators were able to keep pace with
the speed of machines and automation was rarely so complex that operators
had problems in understanding how it worked – or in anticipating what it
would do.
All this changed around the middle of the 20
th
century, which saw the
development of the first digital computer (the ENIAC) in 1945, the creation
of Cybernetics, an exhaustive mathematical analysis of the theory of
feedback and control that provided the formal basis for self-regulation and
automation (Wiener, 1965; org. 1948), and the formulation of the
mathematical theory of communication (Shannon & Weaver, 1969; org.
1949) ...