Misha Glenny

speaker

1,430 appearances 22 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 4d ago

Misha Glenny’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 22 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 6.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

In Our Time · Cybernetics · 28 May 2026 podcast

I hope you enjoy the programme. voice-verified

Hello. voice-verified

Before cybercrime, cybersecurity and cyberpunk, there was cybernetics. voice-verified

The writer William Gibson first used the term cyberspace in the 1980s, and the prefix cyber has become a way to denote anything which relates to digital technology and the internet. voice-verified

But cyber originated even earlier, in the 1940s, with cybernetics, the study of communication and control in animals and machines. voice-verified

Cybernetics had taken its name from the ancient Greek word for steersman, the person who stands at the helm of a ship to steer or govern its course. voice-verified

In cybernetics, everything could be seen as a system which used so-called feedback loops to adjust its own course of action, from thermostats to the human brain. voice-verified

Well, with me to discuss cybernetics are Jacob Ward, historian of science and technology at Maastricht University. voice-verified

John Agar, Professor of Science and Technology Studies at University College London, and Arit Halpern, Lighthouse Professor and Chair of Digital Cultures at the Technische Universität in Dresden. voice-verified

Arit, I'd like to come to you first. voice-verified

Cybernetics emerges after the Second World War. voice-verified

So can you tell us what it was about that conflict in particular that was such a challenge both for the military and for scientists? voice-verified

Let me just drill down a little bit on that issue of humans and machines that you raise. voice-verified

So researchers are trying to create models around the world to tackle this issue of total war. voice-verified

But what was new about the models in terms of that relationship between humans and machines? voice-verified

OK, so in 1948, three years after the end of the war, Norbert Wiener, who you just mentioned, Erit, publishes a book called Cybernetics. voice-verified

John Agar, can you tell us about that book and something about Norbert Wiener as well? voice-verified

And I have to say, I attempted to read cybernetics, and I fell very early on at one of the first hurdles. voice-verified

But he does point out that he wrote another book called The Human Use of Human Beings, which I've got a copy here, which he sort of describes in the introduction as cybernetics for dummies. voice-verified

So... voice-verified

Showing 1161–1180 of 1,430 · page 59 of 72