“[Cybernetics is a] boundary regions of science which
offer the richest opportunities to the qualified investigator. They are at the same time the most refractory to the accepted techniques of mass attack
and the division of labor [...] a proper exploration of
these blank spaces on the map of science could only
be made by a team of scientists, each a specialist
in his own field but each possessing a thoroughly
sound and trained acquaintance with the fields of
his neighbors; all in the habit of working together,
of knowing one another’s intellectual customs, and
of recognizing the significance of a colleague’s new
suggestion before it has taken on a full formal expression. The mathematician need not have the
skill to conduct a physiological experiment, but he must have the skill to understand one, to criticize
one, and to suggest one. The physiologist need not
be able to prove a certain mathematical theorem,
but he must be able to grasp its physiological significance and to tell the mathematician for what
he should look.”
Norbert Wiener. Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, second edition, 1948. p.2
Cited from arXiv:1107.2984v1
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