Many are the faces of nature, but no less sophisticated is

the "second nature"-everything man has made or built.

In this man-made world the present-day achievements

of science and technology are the most exciting.

They are the subject of books by Victor Pekelis.

His practical experience as an engineer and his subsequent literary work

led him to this type of literature and to the main subject of his writings,

since for nearly twenty years he has been writing popular books on

cybernetics. He is the author of the first popular-science book on this

subject called Quicker Than Thought. This book ran to several editions

and was translated into twenty languages in many countries.

There are other books by this author as well: The Machine,

The Possible and the Impossible in Cybernetics, Cybernetics

Expected and Unexpected, Cybernetic Medley.

Four times Victor Pekelis earned prizes in competitions

for the best popular-science books. The present book, too,

received a prize at the all-Union competition for the best

book about science and technology.

Being the author of numerous popular-science books,

Victor Pekelis is active in science journalism as well.

For over ten years running he presided over the all-Union science

and technology propaganda section of the Union of Soviet Journalists,

was elected Vice-Chairman of the International Council for

the Propagation of Scientific Information.