Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems—their structures, constraints, and possibilities. It is relevant to the study of mechanical, physical, biological, cognitive, and social systems.
The term comes from the Ancient Greek "kubernetike", meaning "the art of steering" or "governance". Just as a steersman adjusts the rudder to stay on course despite changing winds and currents, cybernetic systems use feedback to maintain stability and achieve goals.
While the concepts of feedback and control date back to ancient times (e.g., Ktesibios's water clock), modern cybernetics was solidified in the 1940s.
The field was formally defined by Norbert Wiener in his seminal 1948 book, "Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine". Wiener, a mathematician/philosopher, recognized that the principles governing control in complex machines (like anti-aircraft guns) were strikingly similar to those in biological nervous systems.
Between 1946 and 1953, a group of scholars from diverse fields—mathematics, psychology, anthropology, and engineering—gathered in New York for the Macy Conferences. These meetings were the crucible where cybernetics was forged, bringing together giants like John von Neumann, Warren McCulloch, and Margaret Mead to develop a unified theory of the mind and machine.
The heart of cybernetics. A system's output is "fed back" as input, creating a loop.
Entropy is a measure of disorder. In cybernetics, systems fight against the natural tendency towards disorder (Second Law of Thermodynamics) by processing Information.
Claude Shannon's Information Theory provided the mathematical framework to quantify this. A cybernetic system uses information to reduce uncertainty and maintain its structure (Negentropy).
Cybernetics is the ancestor of many modern fields. Its DNA is everywhere:
Valentino Braitenberg, a neuroanatomist, proposed a series of thought experiments in his book "Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology". He showed how simple mechanical connections between sensors and motors can yield complex, life-like behaviors like "fear", "aggression", and "love".
Interact with the simulation below. These "vehicles" have two light sensors connected to two wheels. By changing how they are wired, we change their "personality".