Adaptation in Micro-Organisms

all the humdrum of mental undressing, dressing, shaving, etc., there is the chance reward of being confidential ear to what may never be so well expressed or thought of again. The contributors of the "relatively brief" presentations are six in number. Alex Bavelas talks on "Communication patterns in problem-solving groups"; Ivor A. Richards, on "Communication between men: Meaning and language"; Lawrence S. Kubie, on "Communication between sane and insane: Hypnosis"; Herbert G. Birch, on "Communication between animals." Claude A. Shannon gives a presentation of a maze-solving machine, and Donald M. Mackay concludes with a paper called, "In search of basic symbols." All the speakers are interrupted so frequently by questions, commentaries, and arguments of the discussants that their subject matter never seems to gather sufficient momentum "to take off." For the methodical reader who likes to keep the story straight, these constant, and not always relevant, interruptions may generate some degree of hostility towards the discussants. But this need not lead to undue anxiety and an eventual nervous breakdown, for he has either the choice of laying the book down, or relaxing in the phantasy that he is observing an intellectual game of fox and geese. In addition, he may reassure himself that he is not peculiarly alone in his annoyance, because MacKay, speaking last, and apparently having done a good deal of anticipatory fretting on this score, begins his presentation by saying, "I don't know whether you people feel agreeable, but if there are any questions which you believe are not absolutely vital . . . I should be very grateful if you would make a note of them and bring them all up at one time rather than interrupt the flow...." By and large, however, the foregoing objections will not be disturbing to the person who is able to read fast and to scan over the trivia. Nor do most of the discussions merit the comment of the wag who said the subtitle of this conference should have read, "Circular causal mechanisms, or arguing in circles." During the summer when this book lay on a table with an assortment of other reading material, I saw it singled out and enjoyed by both lay and professional readers alike. There is no doubt that much of it represents an interesting discussion of interesting subjects by interesting minds. In addition to the transactions it includes an excellent editors' note by von Foerster, Mead, and Teuber on the scope and aims of the cybernetic conferences, as well as an appendix by Mackay which will be most helpful to those who are bewildered by, but wish to familiarize themselves with, the nomenclature of information theory.