Albert Ducrocq
Albert Ducrocq (born July 9, 1921 in Versailles ; † October 22, 2001 ) was a French cyberneticist , mathematician and physicist , researcher for artificial intelligence and science journalist. From 1952 to 1958 he headed the Société française d'électronique et de cybernétique and worked for many years in the development of France's space industry.
He became known not only for his non-fiction books on technology, space travel and astronomy, but also for the development of the renard électronique (electronic fox ) - a robot on wheels that independently oriented itself towards light and sound sources and even a kind of artificial Pavlov reflex showed.
Life
Ducrocq's technical talent was already evident at the age of 13 when he was constructing radios, a magnetophone and calculating machines . He studied physics and political science at the Sorbonne and did his doctorate with Louis de Broglie . As early as 1950 he became professor of electron physics in Paris and soon also president of the Fédération Nationale de l 'Automation . In addition to cybernetics, nuclear physics and automation, he dealt with the emerging space travel, about which he wrote the first French specialist books 1957-1959 .
In 1963 he received the Prix international d'astronautique Galabert . Due to his socio-political interest, he also worked at the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques from the 1960s .
In the 1970s, Ducrocq founded the Cosmos Club de France , a company promoting space travel . It was headed by Pascal Lee in 1982 , who was also involved in the SETI projects. In the 1980s he served as a scientific advisor to the Minister of Education René Monory and the Futuroscope Science Park near Poitiers.
Ducrocq was the head of the science department at Figaro and wrote for the journals Sciences et avenir and Air et cosmos . On the radio he commented on various events in space travel for the radio station Europe 1 , for example the first launch of the French diamond rocket in 1965 or the moon landing of Apollo 11 in 1969.
Non-fiction books in German
Ducrocq wrote numerous non-fiction books on technology and space travel, some of which also appeared in German, including
- Sieg über den Raum , Rowohlt-Taschenbuch 119/120, Hamburg 1961, and
- Man in space. The second stage of development of spacecraft , Rowohlt-Taschenbuch 175/176, Hamburg 1963
such as
- The discovery of cybernetics - via computing systems, control engineering, etc. Information theory, 1959
- Atomic Science and Prehistory (1957)
- Novel of Matter: From Atom to Space (1965).
Publications (selection)
- Les Armes Secrètes allemandes (1947)
- Les Horizons de l'énergie atomique (1948)
- Decouverte de la cybernétique (1955)
- La Route du Cosmos (1957)
- Victoire sur l'espace (1959)
- L'Homme dans l'espace (1961)
- Le Fabuleux Pari sur la Lune (1961)
- Plate forme pour le Cosmos (1962)
- Demain l'espace (1967)
- L'Homme sur la Lune (1969)
- À la recherche d'une vie sur Mars (1976)
- Mémoires d'une comète (1985)
- D'une planète à l'autre (1986)
- L'objet vivant, le champ des émergences (1989)
- L'avion spatial américain (1994)
- L'esprit et la neuroscience, Lattès (1999)
- Les Mathématiques: plaisir et nécessité (2000, with André Warusfel )
- Editor of the 6-volume Encyclopédie du Cosmos
- and Istvan Berkès: La physique selon Albert Ducrocq (2006)
swell
- Encyclopedie Universalis, DUCROCQ ALBERT (1921-2001)
- Short biography in "Man in the Universe", p.275-276, rororo 1963
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Futura Sciences: Décés d'Albert Ducrocq. October 23, 2001, accessed February 16, 2016 (French).
- ↑ Europe1 - Albert Ducrocq, Lancement 1er sat français par fusée Diamant - 1965. (MP3) In: exvacuo.free.fr. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016 ; accessed on February 16, 2016 (French, audio recording of the live broadcast, 1:40 minutes).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ducrocq, Albert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French cyberneticist, mathematician and physicist, artificial intelligence researcher and science journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Versailles , France |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 22, 2001 |