[sahy-ber-net-iks] 
) | 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. |
t(ēs) helmsman, steersman (kybernē-, var. s. of kybernân to steer + -tēs agent suffix) + -ics; term introduced by Norbert Wiener in 1948 [sahy-ber-ni-tish-uhn] , noun | cy·ber·net·ics (sī'bər-nět'ĭks) n. (used with a sing. verb) 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. [From Greek kubernētēs, governor, from kubernān, to govern.] cy'ber·net'ic adj., cy'ber·net'i·cal·ly adv., cy'ber·net'i·cist, cy'ber·ne·ti'cian (-nĭ-tĭsh'ən) n. |
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 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]
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.
cybernetics 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 of the UK.
American Society for Cybernetics.
IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society.
International project "Principia Cybernetica".
Usenet newsgroup: 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)