The interest of social scientists in the recent rapid development of automata has two bases: they are interested in powerful computing devices that would enable them to handle complex systems of equations; and they are interested in the suggestive analogies between automata, on the one hand, and organisms and social systems on the other. With respect to the second interest, Mr. von Neumann’s strictures on the limitations of the automaton-organism analogy are well taken. The analogies are fruitful in exposing some of the very general characteristics that such systems have in common — for example, characteristics centering around the notions of communication and servomechanism behavior. But it is dangerous to carry such analogies in detail — e.g, to compare specific structures in a computer with specific neural structures.