Cybernetics

I'm wondering if anyone here has any expertise or experience with the field
of "cybernetics." I'm considering a Ph.D. program at a university in New
York in culture, technology, law and communication, and I'm reading through
the department's book list. One of the books is Norbert Weiner's "The Human
Use of Human Beings," which is a foundational text in cybernetics. It deals
with how humans and machines interact, and is pretty fascinating. Poking
around the web a bit, it seems that the field is kind of loosely defined,
and includes everything from systems theory to epistemology. From a
Christian perspective, some of the ideas seem downright wacky (or dare I say
"demonic") -- for example, that ontology is not rooted in matter or actions
but in systems, and that the self-organizing principles of the universe are
a sort of "God." I should say the program I'm looking at isn't a program in
"cybernetics" -- it's much more broad than that. Is anyone aware of good
treatments of the human-technology interface from a Christian perspective
that aren't alarmist or luddite?
Received on Tue May 9 09:36:05 2006