Cybernetics

Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems, their structures, constraints, and possibilities. It is relevant to the study of systems, such as mechanical, physical, biological, cognitive, and social systems. Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analyzed incorporates a closed signaling loop; that is, where action by the system generates some change in its environment and that change is reflected in the system in some manner (feedback) that triggers a system change, originally referred to as homeostasis.

History

The term cybernetics was first used in the context of "the study of self-governance" by Plato in The Alcibiades to signify the governance of people. The word 'cybernetics' was used to refer to the study of control and communication in the animal and the machine in the 19th century. Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine."

Concepts

Cybernetics includes the study of feedback, black boxes, and derived concepts such as communication and control in living organisms, machines and organizations including self-organization. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to better accomplish the first two tasks.

Applications

Cybernetics has been applied in various fields, from computer science to systems theory, engineering, biology, psychology, and philosophy.

See also

• Systems theory
• Control theory
• Information theory
• Computer science
• Biology
• Psychology
• Philosophy

References

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