ABSTRACT

Cybernetics is the study of communication and control in animals and machines. Associated with computing and with information theory, it can be thought of as one of several approaches that constitute an even broader field, sometimes called the “systems sciences.” While cybernetics is often associated with machine intelligence, or with hybrid systems with both human and machine components, its principles can be applied to any system, from a single cell system to entire human societies. Cybernetics suggests that every communications system is also a control system. Moreover, it demonstrates that systems of communication and control are similar in animals and in machines. Its major contributions include the notion of a linkage between communication and control, the idea of “feedback,” and the idea of using logically separate communication channels for information content, that is, for messages themselves and for signals that control the system. Pioneered by Norbert Wiener, cybernetics represents a departure from earlier and concurrent information theory, because it emphasizes ways to modify the behavior of a system, while it is operating.