This document provides an overview of cybernetic theory through a discussion of its key concepts and applications. It begins by tracing the origins of cybernetics from ancient Greece and its modern conception as the study of control and communication in biological and mechanical systems. The document then examines core cybernetic concepts like feedback, recursion, and autopoiesis. It discusses the influential Macy Conferences in the 1940s-50s and applications of cybernetics across different fields. Finally, it considers the evolution of cybernetics into areas like second-order cybernetics and its focus on the observer role.

1. Cybernetic Theory: So much more than robots
Catherine Novak
INDS 500
March 17th 2013

2. From “steersman” to
self-organizing systems

Kybernetes (Greek def.)
− Person at the wheel of
ship, with their eye on the
horizon “steersman”
− Latin version: gubernator

Cybernetics
− the study of control and
communication in the
animal and the machine
(Weiner, 1948)
2

3. Key concepts:

Cybernetics focuses on systems
which adjust automatically to
feedback

A cybernetic system includes
organism/machine/organization
AND its environment

Recursion: cyclical process of
reproduction; e.g. chicken and
egg, opposing mirrors

Autopoeisis: the system can
self-replicate. Applied to
biological systems, language
and more.
3

4. Origins of cybernetics

Idea of cybernetics dates back
to time of Aristotle

Automated systems have been
in existence for hundreds of
years

With industrial revolution, the
idea of cybernetics resurfaces,
although it wasn't called that
until the 1940s
4

5. The Macy Conferences (1942-53)

Numerous specialists met to
find interdisciplinary solutions
to W.W. II, then to explore
other collaborative ideas
− Anthropologists
− Computer scientists
− Mathematicians
− Neuroscientists
− Physicists

From their work, Norbert
Weiner coined the term for the
modern study of cybernetics.
(1948)
5

6. Entropy vs. Self-Organization

Newton's Second Law of
Thermodynamics
− Entropy: matter becomes
more chaotic, varied

Information, acted upon,
reverses this law
− Computer Code
− DNA
− Mind

Self-organization limits
possibilities, reduces entropy

A self-organizing system is
cybernetic
6

7. Relationships, activities, feedback

Cybernetic theorists are more
interested in what a system
does than what its components
are

Information is the “electron” of
a cybernetic circuit
− Can be active or
quiescent
− Flows from origin to
environment and back
− Maintains or alters the
system

Bateson defined information as
“differences that make a
difference” (1971, 2000)
7

8. Second-order cybernetics

“Cybernetics of cybernetics”
(von Foerster)

Second-order cybernetics
“Studies the role of the
(human) observer in the
construction of models of
systems and other observers”
(Heylighter, 2001)

“No data are truly 'raw', and
every record has been
somehow subjected to editing
and transformation either by
man or by his instruments”
(Bateson, 1971, 2000 p. xxvi)
8

9. Applications

Cybernetics involves studies of
goal-oriented, functional
systems
− Machines (Weiner)
− Animals
− Computers
− Machine/Animal hybrids
− Ecosystems
− The Mind (Bateson)
− Communication (Pask)
− Societies (Beer)
− Creativity (Iba)
− etc.
9

10. More applications than theory

Interdisciplinary cybernetic
research reached its peak in
the 1970s and 1980s

Much cybernetic research is
now specific to applied
research such as robotics, AI,
meteorology, biology,
neuroscience

General systems theory has
adopted many of the tenets of
cybernetics
10

11. The last word

“The characteristic of a
non-trivial system that is under
control, is that
− despite dealing with
variables too many to
count,
− too uncertain to express,
− and too difficult even to
understand,

something can be done to
generate a predictable goal.”
(Beer, 2002)
11

12. References
American Society of Cybernetics. (n.d.) Foundations: History of cybernetics. Retrieved March
16th, 2013 from http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/timeline.htm
Bateson, G. (2000). Steps to an ecology of mind, with a new foreword by Mary Catherine
Bateson. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.
Beer, S. (2002) What is cybernetics? Kybernetes, 31(2), 209-219.
doi:10.1108/03684920210417283
Heylighten, F. & Joslyn, C. (2001). Cybernetics and second-order cybernetics in R.A. Meyers
(Ed.) Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.). New York, NY:
Academic Press
Leaning, M. (2002). The person we meet online. In Convergence, 8(1) 18-27.
doi:10.1177/135485650200800103
Rudall, B.H. (2000). Cybernetics and systems in the 1980s, Kybernetes, 29(5/6), 595-611.
doi:10.1108/03684920010333071
Takashi Iba, (2010). An autopoietic systems theory for creativity. Procedia - Social and
Behavioral Sciences, 2(4). 6610-6625 Retrieved March 16th 2013 from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042810011298
Wiener, N. (1950). The human use of human beings: Cybernetics and society. Retrieved from
http://books.google.ca/books?id=ra8HqPk-wMIC&dq=Weiner+AND+cybernetics&lr=
12

13. Image credits
1. Cirius Cybernetics: Creative Commons attribution license by Bryan K. Ward
2. Steersman: Creative Commons attribution license
3. Droste cocoa package: public domain
4. Dipping bird: Creative Commons attribution license Wikimedia Commons
5. Weiner cover by George Giusti: Creative Commons attribution license by Crossett
Library Bennington College
6. Information superhighway Creation Commons attribution license
7. From Heylighter & Joclyn, 2001, p. 16
8. Second-Order Cybernetics: Creative Commons attribution – share alike license
Wikimedia Commons
9. From Iba, 2010
10. Rudall, 2000, p. 598
11. By Joachin Stroh. Retrieved March 16th 2013 from
https://plus.google.com/100641053530204604051/posts/dFpRvJUwRhw
13