• Introduction to Focus:Cybernetics
• Henry Sussman (bio)

The irreplaceable Michel Foucault, had he survived long enough, would have found himself in the anomalous position of building an addition to the magnificent edifice of épistèmes (semiologygrounded historical epochs doubling as exegetical operating systems) that he had constructed in such works as The Order of Things (1966) and The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). Foucault was not party to the full range of transformations, staccato and earth-shattering as they came in, wrought by the dissemination of cybernetic devices, procedures, and sensibility. Though this process has been underway nigh three quarters of a century, the arts and the academy are still reeling from its aftershocks. Had Foucault, like the contributors to the following sheaf of reviews of (mostly) recent books bearing on the topic, witnessed the full range of the impact, on information, its archiving, communications, the media, but also on entertainment, social interaction, and even bodily posture, he surely would have been compelled to add a fourth épistème, the cybernetic one, to the magisterial trio by which he accounted for cultural development in the West since the Renaissance.

To the triad of cultural bearings based initially, during that inaugural era, on sytematized analogical thinking; then on the tabulated knowledge dominant throughout the so-called Age of Reason; and finally, at the Romantico-Modern moment, centering on the shifters of Labor, Life, and Language respectively at the core of all modern science, Foucault would no doubt have appended, in his characteristically global fashion, his explicitly cybernetic épistème. This one encompassing, among other phenomena, recursivity, analog-digital shuttling, isomorphic coding, and autopoietic progression— and drawing upon the significant cybernetic structuration already embedded within his antecedent historico-semiological paradigms.

Fortunately for us, a slew of great minds, from Norbert Wiener, Gregory Bateson, Benoît Mandelbrot, Gordon Pask, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Heinz Von Foerster, Anthony Wilden, and Douglas Hofstadter to Gilbert Simondon, Niklas Luhmann, Umberto Maturana, Francisco Varela, Lynn Margulis, James Lovelock, James Gleick, and Bruno Latour set out, starting with the post-War period, whether intentionally or not, to fill in this gaping epistemological void. Contributions by the above thinkers, to fields encompassing cybernetics, systems theory, mathematics, the "hard" and social sciences, and media studies have irreversibly and tangibly affected the books under the umbrella of the present Focus. The very fact that the impact of these generative thinkers has become part and parcel of study in the Humanities, joining its contemporary mainstream, registers a seismic shift in the academic division of labor as it was calibrated as recently as the 1990's.

Collectively, the relatively recent contributions folded into our Focus play themselves out as a status report, keyed to 2020-21, on the current drift and bearing of cybernetic phenomena and discourse. At this particular juncture, we find ourselves far less in an epoch of cyber-wonder, incredulity, or befuddlement than of inevitability and retrospect. That is, in the aftermath of a Faustian pact already somewhat recessed in time.

Out of an eye-popping lightshow of compelling cyber-themes soliciting engagement by thoughtful cultural commentators have emerged a surprisingly coherent constellation of concerns and issues: these loop and feed back in interesting ways from one review to the next. Not surprisingly, a respectable chunk of our sample, books including Scott A. Midson's Cyborg Theology: Humans, Technology, and God (2017), reviewed by R. John Williams, and Grant Bollmer's Theorizing Digital Cultures (2018), reviewed by Nina Wexelblatt, addresses the broader cultural impact of cyber-technology and its theoretical reception—particularly within the ethical and aesthetic spheres. Gilbert Simondon's Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information, in its sounding to the deep roots of philosophical infrastructure, emerges as a unique entry on our list. Bernard Stiegler's history of technics is among the projects that rescued this magisterial study of the formal and informational subtexts to the process of individuation from its initial obscurity. Its belated availability to English-language readers considerably gains from Bryan Adkins's supple translation. Another of our sample's subgroupings. Another subgrouping, more historical in slant, fosters an appreciation of the current status quo by orchestrating its emergence from first-generation innovations and...

• 焦点介绍：控制论
• 亨利·萨斯曼（生物）

迈克尔·福柯（Michel Foucault）不可替代的生命，如果他活了足够长的时间，他将发现自己处于异常地位，正在为他在诸如《秩序》（The Order of of the Order）之类的作品中建造的epistèmes（以符号学为基础的符号学历史纪元）的宏伟大厦增建一幢新建筑。事物（1966）和知识考古学（1969）。由于传播了控制论的设备，程序和敏感性，福柯并未参与所有的变革，断断续续和惊天动地的变革。尽管这个过程已经进行了近四分之三世纪，但艺术和学术界仍在从余震中解脱出来。福柯是否像随后对大多数有关该主题的最新书进行评论的作者一样，目睹了对信息，其归档，通信，媒体以及娱乐，社交互动的全方位影响，甚至是身体姿势，他肯定会被迫在大师级三人组中增加第四支控制论者，即控制论者，以此来说明自文艺复兴以来西方在西方的文化发展。

最初在那个就职时代，以刻板化的类比思维为基础的文化三位一体；然后在整个所谓的理性时代中占据主导地位的列表知识；最后，在浪漫主义时期，以所有现代科学的核心分别关注劳动，生活和语言的转移者，福柯无疑将以其典型的全球性方式加入他明确的控制论。除其他现象外，这其中包括递归性，模数穿梭，同构编码和自拟渐进性-并利用了他早先的历史符号学范式中已经嵌入的重要控制论结构。

对我们来说幸运的是，从诺伯特·维纳（Norbert Wiener），格里高里·贝特森（Gregory Bateson），贝诺·曼德布洛特（BenoîtMandelbrot），戈登·帕斯克（Gordon Pask），路德维希·冯·贝塔朗菲，海因茨·冯·福斯特，安东尼·王尔德和道格拉斯·霍夫施塔特，道格拉斯·霍夫施塔特，吉尔伯特·西蒙登，尼古拉斯·卢曼，乌贝托·马图拉那琳恩·马古利斯（Lynn Margulis），詹姆斯·洛夫洛克（James Lovelock），詹姆斯·格里克（James Gleick）和布鲁诺·拉图尔（Bruno Latour）从战后时期开始，无论有意还是无意，填补了这一巨大的认识论空白。上述思想家在控制论，系统理论，数学，“硬性”和社会科学以及媒体研究等领域所做出的贡献，在当前《焦点》的保护下，对这些书产生了不可逆转的影响。这些生成思想家的影响已成为人文学科研究的一部分，并加入了其当代主流，

总的来说，聚焦在我们的《焦点》中的相对较新的贡献作为状态报告（以2020-21年为关键）在当前关于控制论现象和话语的漂移和影响方面发挥了作用。在这个特定的关头，我们发现自己所处的时代不是网络奇观，怀疑或迷惑，而是必然性和回顾。就是说，在浮士德式公约之后，时间已经有些隐退了。

在引人注目的网络主题引人入胜的灯光秀中，深思熟虑的文化评论员积极参与，形成了令人惊讶且连贯的关注点和问题：这些关注点和问题以一种有趣的方式循环并从一次审阅反馈到下一次审阅。不足为奇的是，我们的样本的可敬块，书籍，其中包括斯科特A. Midson的人造人神学：人类，科技，神（2017年），由R.约翰·威廉斯审查，格兰特Bollmer的理论化数字文化（2018），尼娜Wexelblatt审查讨论了网络技术及其理论接受的更广泛文化影响，尤其是在道德和美学领域。吉尔伯特·西蒙登的形式和信息观念的个性化它深深地扎根于哲学基础设施，在我们的清单中作为独特的条目出现。伯纳德·斯蒂格勒（Bernard Stiegler）的技术史是将正式和信息潜台词的权威研究从最初的默默无闻中解救到个性化过程的项目之一。布莱恩·阿德金斯（Bryan Adkins）的柔和翻译为英语读者提供了迟来的便利。我们样本的另一个子分组。另一个分组，具有更悠久的历史，通过协调其从第一代创新和创新中的出现来促进对当前现状的理解。