Asaro, Peter (2004). "Models and Simulations: A Cybernetic Epistemology." Presented at Society for Social Studies of Science Conference, Paris, France, August 26-28th, 2004.

Abstract:
In this paper I examine the historical emergence of a new epistemology of models and simulations and its ties to the rise of Cybernetics in the 1940s. In particular, I will examine the work of three British scientists, W. Ross Ashby, W. Grey Walter, and Kenneth Craik, who worked in the areas of psychiatry, neurophysiology and psychology respectively. Each of these scientists made a significant contribution to a new "synthetic method" for the sciences of the brain. According to this new synthetic method, it became possible to build electronic devices, such as Ashby's Homeostat and Walter's Tortoises, which were argued to actually have certain mental properties––learning, desires, beliefs, etc. As such, these electronic devices became models of the brain which permitted experimentation not feasible with real brains. While Ashby and Walter explicitly considered the role of models in scientific practice, Craik went further to argue that the mind itself used models to understand the world. I will argue that the Cybernetic epistemology that emerged from their work heavily influenced the young computer science researchers involved in the development of Artificial Intelligence, as well as the Cognitive Revolution in psychology.