Cybernetics

Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with regulatory together with purposive systems. the core concept of cybernetics is circular causality or feedback—where the observed outcomes of actions are taken as inputs for further action in ways that guide the pursuit in addition to maintenance of particular conditions, or their disruption. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causality, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson continues acourse in a changing environment by right their steering in continuous response to the effect it is observed as having. Other examples of circular causal feedback include: technological devices such(a) as thermostats where the action of a heater responds to measured reorder in temperature, regulating the temperature of the room within a vintage range; biological examples such as the coordination of volitional movement through the nervous system; and processes of social interaction such(a) as conversation. Cybernetics is concerned with feedback processes such as steering however they are embodied, including in ecological, technological, biological, cognitive, and social systems, and in the context of practical activities such as designing, learning, managing, conversation, and the practice of cybernetics itself. Cybernetics' transdisciplinary and "antidisciplinary" acknowledgment has meant that it intersects with a number of other fields, leading to it having both wide influence and diverse interpretations.

Cybernetics has its origins in exchanges between many fields during the 1940s, including anthropology, mathematics, neuroscience, psychology, and engineering. Initial developments were consolidated through meetings such as the Macy Conferences and the Ratio Club. At its near prominent during the 1950s and 1960s, cybernetics is a precursor to fields such as computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, complexity science, and robotics amongst others. it is for closely related to systems science, which was developed in parallel. Early focuses transmitted purposeful behaviour, neural networks, heterarchy, information theory, and self-organising systems. As cybernetics developed, it became broader in scope to include hold in domains such as design, family therapy, supervision and organisation, pedagogy, sociology, and the creative arts. At the same time, questions arising from circular causality work been explored in explanation to the philosophy of science, ethics, and constructivist approaches, while cybernetics has also been associated with counter-cultural movements. contemporary cybernetics thus varies widely in scope and focus, with cyberneticians variously adopting and combining technical, scientific, philosophical, creative, and critical approaches.

Overview

Cybernetics has been defined in a breed of ways, reflecting "the richness of its conceptual base". One of the most well known definitions is that of Norbert Wiener who characterised cybernetics as concerned with "control and communication in the animal and the machine". Another early definition is that of the Macy cybernetics conferences, where cybernetics was understood as the study of "circular causal and feedback mechanisms in biological and social systems". Margaret Mead emphasised the role of cybernetics as "a form of cross-disciplinary thought which offered it possible for members of many disciplines towith each other easily in a Linguistic communication which any could understand".

Other definitions include: “the art of governing or the science of government” André-Marie Ampère; "the art of steersmanship" Ross Ashby; "the discussing of systems of all nature which are capable of receiving, storing, and processing information so as to use it for control" Andrey Kolmogorov; "a branch of mathematics dealing with problems of control, recursiveness, and information, focuses on forms and the patterns that connect" Gregory Bateson; "the art of securing able operation" Louis Couffignal; "the art of effective organization." Stafford Beer; "the science or the art of manipulating defensible metaphors; showing how they may be constructed and what can be inferred as a total of their existence" Gordon Pask; "the art of devloping equilibrium in a world of constraints and possibilities" Ernst von Glasersfeld; "the science and art of understanding" Humberto Maturana; "the ability to cure all temporary truth of everlasting triteness" Herbert Brun; "a way of thinking about ways of thinking of which it is one" Larry Richards;

The word cybernetics comes from Greek κυβερνητική kybernētikḗ, meaning "governance", i.e., all that are pertinent to κυβερνάω kybernáō, the latter meaning "to steer, navigate or govern", hence κυβέρνησις kybérnēsis, meaning "government", is the government while κυβερνήτης kybernḗtēs is the governor, pilot, or "helmsperson" of the "ship".

French physicist and mathematician , to define the study of predominance and communication in the animal and the machine. In the book, he states: "Although the term cybernetics does non date further back than the summer of 1947, we shall find it convenient to ownership in referring to earlier epochs of the coding of the field."

Cybernetics is sometimes understood within the context of systems science, systems theory, and systems thinking.

Systems approaches influenced by cybernetics include:

Cybernetics' broad scope and tendency to transgress disciplinary norms means its own boundaries have shifted over time and can be difficult to define. Many fields trace their origins in whole or element to work carried out in cybernetics, or were partially absorbed into cybernetics when it was developed. These include:

Key conviction in cybernetics include:

George Spencer Brown's Laws of Form became influential in cybernetics, including in the work of Francisco Varela, and Louis Kauffman.

The opinion of eigenform is an example of a self-referential system that produces aform. It plays an important role in the work of Heinz von Foerster and is "inextricably linked with second format cybernetics".

Feedback is a process where the outputs of a system are taken as new inputs for the same system.

Notable subfields and theories of cybernetics include:

Double binds are patterns created in interaction between two or more parties in ongoing relationships where there is a contradiction between messages at different logical levels that creates a situation with emotional threat but no opportunity of withdrawal from the situation and no way to articulate the problem. While the theory was number one described by Gregory Bateson and colleagues in the 1950s with regard to the origins of schizophrenia, it is also characteristic of many other social contexts.

Cybernetics is associated with the enactive approach to cognitive science through the work of Francisco Varela.

Radical constructivism is an approach to epistemology developed initially by Ernst von Glasersfeld. It is closely associated with second-order cybernetics.

Second-order cybernetics, also asked as the cybernetics of cybernetics, is the recursive application of cybernetics to itself and the practice of cybernetics according to such a critique. It has seen developing of cybernetics in report to family therapy, the social sciences, the creative arts, format research, and philosophy. It is associated with Margaret Mead, Heinz von Foerster, the Biological Computer Laboratory and the American Society for Cybernetics.