Megan Ward, "The Problem With Feedback", The Atlantic, 11 novembre 2018, disponible en ligne.

« Traceable to antiquity, the idea of feedback roared to prominence in the 18th century when the Scottish engineer James Watt figured out how to harness the mighty but irregular power of steam. Watt’s steam governor solved the problem of wasted fuel by feeding the machine’s speed back into the apparatus to control it. When the machine ran too fast, the governor reduced the amount of steam fed to the engine. And when it slowed down, the governor could increase the flow of steam to keep the machine’s speed steady. The steam governor drove the Industrial Revolution by making steam power newly efficient and much more potent. Because it could maintain a relatively stable speed, Watt’s steam engine used up to one-third less energy than previous steam-powered engines. »

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John R. Suler, Psychology of the Digital Age. Humans Become Electric, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 21.

« Years ago I came across an advertisement from Tidal Wave Communications that introduced a new computer accessory called Orecchio. It was a headset, using the Telepathic Internet Data Exchange (TIDE) protocol, that enhanced email functionality by enabling you to send your most important thoughts directly from their source: your mind. “Imagine no more keyboards and achy hands. No more eye strain from the glare of the screen. Just visualize the message you want to send, followed by your send command, and poof! Your email is transmitted to our network for quick delivery to its destination.” Enticed by the opportunity to connect my brain directly to the machine, I would have adopted Orecchio without hesitation, if not for the fact that the advertisement was, of course, an April Fools' joke. The telepathic headset was bogus, but not my realization that truth once again comes out in jest: our minds extend into cyberspace. Years later, research into brain-to-computer and brain-to-brain interfaces suggested that we might indeed control computers with just our minds and perhaps even communicate very simple thoughts and feelings directly bewteen each other's brains via the machine. »