Time and Memory, Man and Machine: Discussions in Cybernetics

This paper concerns the reference to time in the writings of the cybernetic group. It aims at showing that the analogy between man and machine leads to a renewed reflection on time and memory. I first discuss the reference to time in Wiener's Cybernetics and in von Neumann's theory of automata. The third part compares the description of memory in cybernetics and in Descartes'. The fourth part deals with Ulam's investigation of memory in his autobiography Adventures of a Mathematician and in several unpublished drafts.