Cybernetics
1. Cybernetics is the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things.
2. Cybernetics is science which involves studying the way electronic machines and human brains work, and developing machines that do things or think like people.
Cybernetics is a broad field, which encompasses the study of systems which are mechanical, biological, social, physical or cognitive in nature. Cybernetics is applicable to systems which have closed signaling loops. In this type of closed signaling system, action generated within the system triggers changes in the system environment, and this change also triggers some type of system change. Therefore, it is a closed loop where the action and its reaction take place within the same system environment.
Cybernetics has influenced multiple fields of study which include system theory, philosophy, game theory, perceptual control, architecture, artificial intelligence and many more. However, the basic purpose remains the same, which is the study of system controls for all underlying mechanisms.
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causal processes such as feedback. Norbert Wiener named the field after an example of circular causal feedback - that of steering a ship where the steersperson adjusts their steering in response to the effect it is observed as having, enabling a steady course to be maintained amongst disturbances such as crosswinds or the tide.
Cybernetics is concerned with circular causal processes however they are embodied, including in ecological, technological, biological, cognitive, and social systems and also in the context of practical activities such as designing, learning, managing, etc. Its transdisciplinary character has meant that cybernetics intersects with other fields, leading to its vast influence and diverse interpretations.[Arbib, Michael]
Cybernetics has been defined in various ways, reflecting "the richness of its conceptual base." One of the most well-known definitions is that of Norbert Wiener, who characterized cybernetics as concerned with "control and communication in the animal and the machine."[Ascott, Roy]
Columbia university. (June 1, 2000). The Columbia Encyclopedia. (6th ed.). Michigan: Visible Ink Pr.
Cybernetics. (June 30, 2020). Techopedia. URL: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/6709/cybernetics
Ascott, Roy (1967). Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision. Journal of the International Association for Cybernetics.
Arbib, Michael A. (1972). The Metaphorical Brain. Wiley.
Arbib, Michael A. (1987). Brains, machines, and mathematics. New York: Springer-Verlag.