ah ha! possible connection! There’s Bateson – who wrote a review of a Clark L Hull’s work. I can’t find anything else yet connecting Hull and cybernetics but it seems that they’re on similar tracks — maybe this is it. Will find it. Bateson, G. (1941). “Review of Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning: a Study in Scientific Methodology by Clark L. Hull, Carl I Hovland, Robert T. Ross, Marshall Hall, Donald T. Perkins & Frederic B. Fitch”. American Anthropologist. New Series. 43 (1): 116–118. doi:10.1525/aa.1941.43.1.02a00280. JSTOR 663008.

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I don’t think it’s all mechanical – nor all reason — but it’s weird how they dropped Hull – like just got less popular. Maybe his research into hypnosis, I dunno – yet he was the 21st most cited in the 20th century so who knows.

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