Nearby Words
noun (used with a singular verb)
the study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communication engineering.
Origin:
< Greek kybernḗt(ēs) helmsman, steersman (kybernē-, variant stem of kybernân to steer + -tēs agent suffix) + -ics; term introduced by Norbert Wiener in 1948
< Greek kybernḗt(ēs) helmsman, steersman (kybernē-, variant stem of kybernân to steer + -tēs agent suffix) + -ics; term introduced by Norbert Wiener in 1948
Related forms
cy·ber·net·ic, cy·ber·net·i·cal, adjective
cy·ber·net·i·cal·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To cybernetics
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Cybernetics
is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
| an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
| cybernetics (ˌsaɪbəˈnɛtɪks) | |
| —n | |
| (functioning as singular) See also feedback the branch of science concerned with control systems in electronic and mechanical devices and the extent to which useful comparisons can be made between man-made and biological systems | |
| [C20: from Greek kubernētēs steersman, from kubernan to steer, control] | |
| cyber'netic | |
| —adj | |
| cyber'neticist | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
cybernetics
coined 1948 by U.S. mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) from Gk. kybernetes "steersman," perhaps based on 1830s Fr. cybernétique "the art of governing."
EXPAND"The future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence." [Norbert Weiner, "God and Golem, Inc.," 1964]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary
cybernetics cy·ber·net·ics (sī'bər-nět'ĭks)
n.
The theoretical study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems, especially the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
cybernetics  (sī'bər-nět'ĭks) Pronunciation Key
The scientific study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems. Research in cybernetics often involves the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary
cybernetics [(seye-buhr-net-iks)]The general study of control and communication systems in living organisms and machines, especially the mathematical analysis of the flow of information. The term cybernetics was coined by Norbert Wiener, an American mathematician of the twentieth century.
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary
cybernetics definition
robotics/si:`b*-net'iks/ The study of control and communication in living and man-made systems.
The term was first proposed by Norbert Wiener in the book referenced below. Originally, cybernetics drew upon electrical engineering, mathematics, biology, neurophysiology, anthropology, and psychology to study and describe actions, feedback, and response in systems of all kinds. It aims to understand the similarities and differences in internal workings of organic and machine processes and, by formulating abstract concepts common to all systems, to understand their behaviour.
Modern "second-order cybernetics" places emphasis on how the process of constructing models of the systems is influenced by those very systems, hence an elegant definition - "applied epistemology".
Related recent developments (often referred to as sciences of complexity) that are distinguished as separate disciplines are artificial intelligence, neural networks, systems theory, and chaos theory, but the boundaries between those and cybernetics proper are not precise.
See also robot.
The Cybernetics Society (http://cybsoc.org) of the UK.
American Society for Cybernetics (http://asc-cybernetics.org/).
IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society (http://isye.gatech.edu/ieee-smc/).
International project "Principia Cybernetica" (http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html).
Usenet newsgroup: sci.systems (news:sci.systems).
["Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine", N. Wiener, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1948]
(2002-01-01)
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