What does "cyber" even mean? & where does the idea come from? We live in an age increasingly defined by technology But as we check our emails board a plane or read about the latest Russian hack we rarely ask how the ideas that shaped our modern world originated Thomas Rid's revelatory history of cybernetics pulls together disparate threads in the history of technology from the invention of radar & pilotless flying bombs in World War Two to artificial intelligence virtual reality cryptocurrencies & present day fears about cyber security