PDF-[EBOOK]-Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics

Today we associate the relationship between feedback control and computing with Norbert Wieners 1948 formulation of cybernetics But the theoretical and practical foundations for cybernetics control engineering and digital computing were laid earlier between the two world wars In Between Human and Machine Feedback Control and Computing before Cybernetics David A Mindell shows how the modern sciences of systems emerged from disparate engineering cultures and their convergence during World War IIMindell examines four different arenas of control systems research in the United States between the world wars naval fire control the Sperry Gyroscope Company the Bell Telephone Laboratories and Vannevar Bushs laboratory at MIT Each of these institutional sites had unique technical problems organizational imperatives and working environments and each fostered a distinct engineering culture Each also developed technologies to represent the world in a machineAt the beginning of World War II President Roosevelt established the National Defense Research Committee one division of which was devoted to control systems Mindell shows how the NDRC brought together representatives from the four prewar engineering cultures and how its projects synthesized conceptions of control communications and computing By the time Wiener articulated his vision these ideas were already suffusing through engineering They would profoundly influence the digital worldAs a new way to conceptualize the history of computing this book will be of great interest to historians of science technology and culture as well as computer scientists and theorists Between Human and Machine Feedback Control and Computing before Cybernetics. Johns Hopkins Medicine a nonpro31t combines over 125 years of commitment to community care with groundbreaking research teaching and medical services to Based on the US News World ReportBest Hospital This study examines the transformation that overtook the infant incubator after it was introduced to the US from France in the late 19th century. The author argues that the Americans did more than just adopt the incubator - they re-invented it in the process, so that a simple domestic warming device became a complex life support system intended to provide a complete artificial environment for the premature infant. The text focuses on the interaction between the technology and its intended target, the premature infant. To the extent that particular medical specialists in distinct institutions and cultures saw different populations of such infants, they were bound to interpret the incubator\'s purpose differently. Johns Hopkins Patients\' Guide to Lymphoma is a concise, easy-to-follow “how to” guide that puts you on the path to wellness by explaining lymphoma treatment from start to finish. It guides you through the overwhelming maze of treatment decisions, simplifies the complicated schedule that lies ahead, and performs the task of putting together your plan of care in layman\'s terms. Empower yourself with accurate, understandable information that will give you the ability to confidently participate in the decision making about your care and treatment. To solve their design problems, engineers draw on a vast body of knowledge about how things work. Examining previously unstudied historical cases, this author shows how engineering knowledge is obtained and presents a model to help explain the growth of such knowledge. To solve their design problems, engineers draw on a vast body of knowledge about how things work. Examining previously unstudied historical cases, this author shows how engineering knowledge is obtained and presents a model to help explain the growth of such knowledge. Faxed is the first history of the facsimile machine--the most famous recent example of a tool made obsolete by relentless technological innovation. Jonathan Coopersmith recounts the multigenerational, multinational history of that device from its origins to its workplace glory days, in the process revealing how it helped create the accelerated communications, information flow, and vibrant visual culture that characterize our contemporary world.Most people assume that the fax machine originated in the computer and electronics revolution of the late twentieth century, but it was actually invented in 1843. Almost 150 years passed between the fax\'s invention in England and its widespread adoption in tech-savvy Japan, where it still enjoys a surprising popularity. Over and over again, faxing\'s promise to deliver messages instantaneously paled before easier, less expensive modes of communication: first telegraphy, then radio and television, and finally digitalization in the form of email, the World Wide Web, and cell phones. By 2010, faxing had largely disappeared, having fallen victim to the same technological and economic processes that had created it.Based on archival research and interviews spanning two centuries and three continents, Coopersmith\'s book recovers the lost history of a once-ubiquitous technology. Written in accessible language that should appeal to engineers and policymakers as well as historians, Faxed explores themes of technology push and market pull, user-based innovation, and blackboxing (the packaging of complex skills and technologies into packages designed for novices) while revealing the inventions inspired by the fax, how the demand for fax machines eventually caught up with their availability, and why subsequent shifts in user preferences rendered them mostly passe. The American Railroad Passenger Car recaptures the lost, but not-too-distant past when 98 percent of all intercity travel in the United States was by rail. It documents in extraordinary detail the ingenuity and splendor of the classic trains as well as the rattle and clatter, the dust and cinders of early rail travel. An unparalleled record of changes in taste and technologyWith clarity and precision, White explains the methods of construction of wood, iron, steel, and aluminum cars. He traces the evolution of wheels and brakes, dining cars and sleeping compartments. And he follows the revolutions in taste and technology that dramatically altered the appearance of the railroad passenger car over the century and a half that it dominated American travel.An extraordinary resource for railroad hobbyistsDetailed plans and diagrams accompanying the text make it possible for model-builders to reconstruct many famous passenger cars themselves. Appendixes contain biographies of coach builders and designers numerous tables comparing models, materials, and prices a chronology of passenger cars and an annotated bibliography. Engineering Victory brings a fresh approach to the question of why the North prevailed in the Civil War. Historian Thomas F. Army, Jr., identifies strength in engineering—not superior military strategy or industrial advantage—as the critical determining factor in the war’s outcome.Army finds that Union soldiers were able to apply scientific ingenuity and innovation to complex problems in a way that Confederate soldiers simply could not match. Skilled Free State engineers who were trained during the antebellum period benefited from basic educational reforms, the spread of informal educational practices, and a culture that encouraged learning and innovation. During the war, their rapid construction and repair of roads, railways, and bridges allowed Northern troops to pass quickly through the forbidding terrain of the South as retreating and maneuvering Confederates struggled to cut supply lines and stop the Yankees from pressing any advantage.By presenting detailed case studies from both theaters of the war, Army clearly demonstrates how the soldiers’ education, training, and talents spelled the difference between success and failure, victory and defeat. He also reveals massive logistical operations as critical in determining the war’s outcome. To solve their design problems, engineers draw on a vast body of knowledge about how things work. Examining previously unstudied historical cases, this author shows how engineering knowledge is obtained and presents a model to help explain the growth of such knowledge. Today, we associate the relationship between feedback, control, and computing with Norbert Wiener\'s 1948 formulation of cybernetics. But the theoretical and practical foundations for cybernetics, control engineering, and digital computing were laid earlier, between the two world wars. In Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics, David A. Mindell shows how the modern sciences of systems emerged from disparate engineering cultures and their convergence during World War II.Mindell examines four different arenas of control systems research in the United States between the world wars: naval fire control, the Sperry Gyroscope Company, the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and Vannevar Bush\'s laboratory at MIT. Each of these institutional sites had unique technical problems, organizational imperatives, and working environments, and each fostered a distinct engineering culture. Each also developed technologies to represent the world in a machine.At the beginning of World War II, President Roosevelt established the National Defense Research Committee, one division of which was devoted to control systems. Mindell shows how the NDRC brought together representatives from the four pre-war engineering cultures, and how its projects synthesized conceptions of control, communications, and computing. By the time Wiener articulated his vision, these ideas were already suffusing through engineering. They would profoundly influence the digital world.As a new way to conceptualize the history of computing, this book will be of great interest to historians of science, technology, and culture, as well as computer scientists and theorists. Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics As any American who has traveled abroad knows, the American home contains more, and more elaborate, plumbing than any other in the world. Indeed, Americans are renowned for their obsession with cleanliness. Although plumbing has occupied a central position in American life since the mid-nineteenth century, little scholarly attention has been paid to its history. Now, in All the Modern Conveniences, Maureen Ogle presents a fascinating study that explores the development of household plumbing in nineteenth-century America.Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in mansions and first-class hotels. Then, in the decade before midcentury, Americans representing a wider range of economic circumstances began to install household plumbing with increasing eagerness. Ogle draws on a wide assortment of contemporary sources—sanitation reports, builders\' manuals, fixture catalogues, patent applications, and popular scientific tracts—to show how the demand for plumbing was prompted more by an emerging middle-class culture of convenience, reform, and domestic life than by fears about poor hygiene and inadequate sanitation. She also examines advancements in water-supply and waste-management technology, the architectural considerations these amenities entailed, and the scientific approach to sanitation that began to emerge by century\'s end. The American Railroad Passenger Car recaptures the lost, but not-too-distant past when 98 percent of all intercity travel in the United States was by rail. It documents in extraordinary detail the ingenuity and splendor of the classic trains as well as the rattle and clatter, the dust and cinders of early rail travel. An unparalleled record of changes in taste and technologyWith clarity and precision, White explains the methods of construction of wood, iron, steel, and aluminum cars. He traces the evolution of wheels and brakes, dining cars and sleeping compartments. And he follows the revolutions in taste and technology that dramatically altered the appearance of the railroad passenger car over the century and a half that it dominated American travel.An extraordinary resource for railroad hobbyistsDetailed plans and diagrams accompanying the text make it possible for model-builders to reconstruct many famous passenger cars themselves. Appendixes contain biographies of coach builders and designers numerous tables comparing models, materials, and prices a chronology of passenger cars and an annotated bibliography. Historian Thomas J. Misa’s sweeping history of the relationship between technology and society over the past 500 years reveals how technological innovations have shaped—and have been shaped by—the cultures in which they arose. Spanning the preindustrial past, the age of scientific, political, and industrial revolutions, as well as the more recent eras of imperialism, modernism, and global security, this compelling work evaluates what Misa calls the question of technology.Misa brings his acclaimed text up to date by examining how today\'s unsustainable energy systems, insecure information networks, and vulnerable global shipping have helped foster geopolitical risks and instability. A masterful analysis of how technology and culture have influenced each other over five centuries, Leonardo to the Internet frames a history that illuminates modern-day problems and prospects faced by our technology-dependent world Medical Center, . Sibley Memorial Hospital and Suburban Hospital. Johns Hopkins Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) Plan. October 23, 2023. 2024 Plan Overview. C. onfidential. Johns Hopkins PPO . Benefits Overview.