{{Short description|Early cybernetics circle}} The '''Ratio Club''' was a small British informal dining club from 1949 to 1958 of young psychiatrists, psychologists, physiologists, mathematicians and engineers who met to discuss issues in cybernetics.<ref name="HH 2008">{{Citation | last1=Husbands | first1=Phil | url=https://archive.org/details/mechanicalmindin00phil |chapter-url=https://users.sussex.ac.uk/~philh/pubs/Ratio2.pdf | author-link=Phil Husbands | last2=Holland | first2=Owen | author2-link=Owen Holland (academic) | contribution=The Ratio Club: A Hub of British Cybernetics | editor-last=Husbands | editor-first=Phil | editor-link=Phil Husbands | editor2-last=Wheeler | editor2-first=M. | editor3-last=Holland | editor3-first=Owen | editor3-link=Owen Holland (academic) | year=2008 | title=The mechanical mind in history | isbn=978-0-262-08377-5 | publisher=MIT Press | location=Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.] | oclc=181142511 | url-access=registration|access-date=17 May 2026}}</ref><ref>{{McCorduck 2004}}, p.&nbsp;95.</ref>

==History== The idea of the club arose from a symposium on animal behaviour held in July 1949 by the Society of Experimental Biology in Cambridge. The club was founded by the neurologist John Bates, with other notable members such as W. Ross Ashby.<ref name="HH 2008"/>

The name ''Ratio'' was suggested by Albert Uttley, it being the Latin root meaning "computation or the faculty of mind which calculates, plans and reasons". He pointed out that it is also the root of ''rationarium'', meaning a statistical account, and ''ratiocinatius'', meaning argumentative. The use was probably inspired by an earlier suggestion by Donald Mackay of the 'MR club', from ''Machina ratiocinatrix'', a term used by Norbert Wiener in the introduction to his then recently published book ''Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine''. Wiener used the term in reference to ''calculus ratiocinator'', a calculating machine constructed by Leibniz.<ref name="HH 2008"/>

The initial membership was W. Ross Ashby, Horace Barlow, John Bates, George Dawson, Thomas Gold, W. E. Hick, Victor Little, Donald MacKay, Turner McLardy, P. A. Merton, John Pringle, Harold Shipton, Donald Sholl, Eliot Slater, Albert Uttley, W. Grey Walter and John Hugh Westcott. Alan Turing joined after the first meeting with I. J. Good, Philip Woodward and William Rushton added soon after.

Giles Brindley attended several meetings as a guest.<ref name="brindley_guest_1">{{Citation | last1=Husbands | first1=Phil | url=https://archive.org/detapails/mechanicalmindin00phil |chapter-url=https://users.sussex.ac.uk/~philh/pubs/Ratio2.pdf | author-link=Phil Husbands | last2=Holland | first2=Owen | author2-link=Owen Holland (academic) | contribution=The Ratio Club: A Hub of British Cybernetics | editor-last=Husbands | editor-first=Phil | editor-link=Phil Husbands | editor2-last=Wheeler | editor2-first=M. | editor3-last=Holland | editor3-first=Owen | editor3-link=Owen Holland (academic) | year=2008 | title=The mechanical mind in history | isbn=978-0-262-08377-5 | publisher=MIT Press | location=Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.] | oclc=181142511 | url-access=registration|access-date=17 May 2026|page=29|quote=Giles Brindley, a guest at several meetings ...}}</ref> Warren McCulloch made presentations to the club twice, the first time at its inaugural meeting (a talk which the members found disappointing), and became a correspondent with and supporter of a number of its members.<ref name=HH_McCulloch>{{cite journal|last1=Husbands|first1=Phil |author1-link=Phil Husbands |last2=Holland|first2=Owen| author2-link=Owen Holland (academic) |title=Warren McCulloch and the British Cyberneticians|journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews|date=September 2012|volume=37|issue=3|pages=237–253|doi=10.1179/0308018812Z.00000000019|bibcode=2012ISRv...37..237H|s2cid=145563943|url=https://users.sussex.ac.uk/~philh/pubs/McCullochBritCyberneticsV3-final.pdf |access-date=17 May 2026}}</ref> Others who attended at least one Ratio Club event as guests included Walter Pitts, Claude Shannon, J.Z. Young, C.H. Waddington, Peter Elias, J. C. R. Licklider, Oliver Selfridge, Benoît Mandelbrot, Colin Cherry<ref name="HH 2008" />{{rp|p=27}} and Anthony Oettinger<ref name=mit_oettinger_guest>{{cite book |last=Oettinger |first=A. G. |date=1999 |editor1-last=Cohen |editor1-first=I. Bernard |editor1-link=I. Bernard Cohen |editor2-last=Welch |editor2-first=Gregory W. |title=Makin' Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer |publisher=MIT Press |url=https://archive.org/details/makinnumbershowa0000unse/page/208 |url-access=registration |pages=203-214 |chapter=Reminiscences of the Boss |access-date=18 May 2026 |quote-page=208 |quote=The linguistics professor at Cambridge was then a man whom Joshua Whatmough described to me as "one who speaks many languages but says nothing in any of them." So I followed Wilkes's suggestion that I address whether computers might be made to learn. My nights on the EDSAC were often shared with John Kendrew ... Alan Turing and others became familiars at meetings of the Ratio Club. My first published paper, "Programming a Digital Computer to Learn" (''Philosophical Magazine'' 7, no. 43, 1952: 1243-1263), came out of this ferment.}}</ref>. One one occasion I.J. Good brought along the then director of the USA's National Security Agency<ref name="HH 2008" />{{rp|p=27}} (presumably either Ralph Canine or John Samford given the dates).

Several members admired the work of psychologist and philosopher Kenneth Craik and considered him an important influence; according to Husbands and Holland "there is no doubt Craik would have been a leading member of the club" had he not died young in 1945.<ref name="HH 2008 on Craik">{{cite journal |last1=Husbands |first1=Phil |author-link1=Phil Husbands |last2=Holland |first2=Owen|author2-link=Owen Holland (academic) |editor1-last=Husbands |editor1-first=Phil |editor2-last=Holland |editor2-first=Owen |editor3-last=Wheeler |editor3-first=M |title=The Ratio Club: A Hub of British Cybernetics |journal=The Mechanical Mind in History |date=2008 |pages=107-109 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265258561 |publisher=MIT Press|doi=10.7551/mitpress/9780262083775.003.0006 |isbn=9780262083775}}</ref>

The club has been considered the most influential cybernetics group in the UK, and many of its members went on to become prominent scientists.

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Citation | last = Boden | first = Margaret | author-link = Margaret Boden | title = Grey Walter's Anticipatory Tortoises | journal = The Rutherford Journal | volume = 2 | year = 2006–2007 | url = http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/article020101.html }} * {{Citation | last1 = Husbands | first1 = Phil | author-link = Phil Husbands | last2 = Holland | first2 = Owen | author2-link = Owen Holland (academic) | title = The Ratio Club: A Hub of British Cybernetics | year = 2008 | url = http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Users/philh/pubs/Ratio2.pdf }} * {{cite journal|last1=Holland|first1=Owen|author-link1=Owen Holland (academic)|last2=Husbands|first2=Phil|author2-link=Phil Husbands|title=The origins of British cybernetics: the Ratio Club |date=March 2011 |journal=Kybernetes|volume=40 |issue=1/2 |pages=110-123 |issn=0368-492X |doi=10.1108/03684921111117951|access-date=17 May 2026|url=https://www.emerald.com/k/article-abstract/40/1-2/110/273436/The-origins-of-British-cybernetics-the-Ratio-Club|url-access=subscription}} * {{cite journal|last1=Husbands|first1=Phil|author-link1=Phil Husbands |last2=Holland|first2=Owen| author2-link = Owen Holland (academic)|title=Warren McCulloch and the British Cyberneticians|journal=Interdisciplinary Science Reviews|date=September 2012|volume=37|issue=3|pages=237–253|doi=10.1179/0308018812Z.00000000019|bibcode=2012ISRv...37..237H|s2cid=145563943|url=https://users.sussex.ac.uk/~philh/pubs/McCullochBritCyberneticsV3-final.pdf |access-date=17 May 2026}}

Category:1949 establishments in England Category:Scientific organizations established in 1949 Category:Cybernetics Category:Dining clubs Category:History of artificial intelligence Category:Systems sciences organizations Category:Ratio Club members Category:Clubs and societies in England