ARCHODOS

CONTEXT 1

 

CYBER-HISTORY

 

The prefix “cyber-” comes to contemporary usage through Norbert Weiner's “cybernetics”, the study and creation of self-guiding systems. Weiner chose the Greek root kyberne- (used in the words kybernân; “to steer”, and kybernet; “helmsman”, and the root for the English word “government”). Thus, “cyber-history” would indicate a form of research that uses history as a guide. The use of precedents in contemporary problem solving has always been part of historiography, but this application of research is generally excised from historiographical techniques and methods. The field of history (the collection of institutions, techniques and practitioners that effect and study history) does not regularly concern itself with how the results of its discourse are used in the production new things.