System Architecture and Complexity

1The Legacy of Norbert Wiener and the Birth of Cybernetics

Without intending to be an exhaustive historical account, this chapter provides some specific details regarding the concerns of the founders of what is now the science of systems or systemics, in order to understand the stakes that still remain extremely relevant today. Its objective is to avoid the anachronisms that are often the origins of serious misinterpretations.

In this chapter, we propose to revisit the key event system sciences, or systemics originated, in which the mathematician N. Wiener, professor at MIT, has been an emblematic actor¹. The summary that we propose does not claim to provide a chronological history of the facts as far as it could be restituted², which would in any case not be of great interest. It attempts, on the other hand, to recreate the dramatic climate of the era in which all available researchers find themselves caught up in the efforts of the Anglo-American war to fight against totalitarian regimes. Some do so with conviction and without scruples, such as J. von Neumann, others due to a moral duty, such as N. Wiener who was a pacifist and felt disgusted by violence. This is a period of intense interactions and exchanges between exceptional scientific personalities, often of European origin, where urgent action against totalitarian regimes is the common good. To make sense of this situation, it is necessary to imagine trying to put ourselves in the situation in order to judge the potential ...