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Capsaicin and cybernetics: Mexican intellectual networks in the foundation of cybernetics

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Abstract

This paper offers some insights and clarifications of the paramount role that Mexico has had in the forging of first-order cybernetics. Our account starts with Arturo Rosenblueth as a key intellectual figure in the foundation and formation of the field. After revisiting a historical context of people and places, we proceed to a cultural and media archeological investigation that helps us obtain new insights into the ongoing effort to intertwine the complex intellectual networks across different countries in Latin America, North America, and Europe. We then present cases and first-hand interviews to discuss the legacy of cybernetics in Mexico around institutions where Rosenblueth was affiliated, mainly the Institute of Cardiology and, later on, the CINVESTAV at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional. We claim that subjective affinities are as important as common scientific goals to establish and keep connections alive, necessary to the development of a research field. As the active compound in spicy peppers, capsaicin represents a local component to the definition of cybernetics. Ultimately, the paper aims to contribute to the research on the importance of cybernetics in Latin America.

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Notes

  1. A detailed recount of this line of inquiry is evident in her text Arturo Rosenblueth en la creación del Cinvestav (Quintanilla, 2008).

  2. Website of the laboratory lead by professor Eduardo Bayro Corrochano: https://unidad.gdl.cinvestav.mx/investigadores/eduardoBayro.html .

  3. The influence of Rudolf E. Kálmán in the gestation of the Argentinian side of cybernetics influenced the orientation of the work of the control theorist Eduardo D. Sontag (a disciple of Rudolf E. Kálmán). Eduardo Daniel Sontag published a text on artificial intelligence in the early seventies in which the particularity of cybernetics is seen with Argentinian cultural nuances.

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Acknowledgements

We want to express our gratitude to professor Juan Carlos Martínez García and CINVESTAV for their support in conducting interviews with researchers from CINVESTAV, the C3 at UNAM, and Universidad de Colima in 2018. Additionally, we would like to extend our thanks to scientists Elena Roces Dorronsoro, Pablo Rudomín Zevnovaty, Juan Manuel Ibarra, and Fernando Zalamea for accepting to participate in the interviews. Finally, we also want to convey our warm thanks to Regina Freyman and Isaac Rudmín for facilitating information only accessible to family members and that helped to verify many facts here exposed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

    Andrés Burbano

  2. Université Paris 8–Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France

    Everardo Reyes

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  1. Andrés Burbano
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Correspondence to Andrés Burbano.

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Burbano, A., Reyes, E. Capsaicin and cybernetics: Mexican intellectual networks in the foundation of cybernetics. AI & Soc 37, 1013–1025 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01337-3

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